Scrapping the three-day wait for sick pay will help millions 

More than 7 million employees rely on statutory sick pay (SSP) when sick. Statutory sick pay is the legal minimum that an employee receives when off sick. Around a quarter of employees (26 per cent) rely on it, and it’s currently paid at just £116.75 per week. 

But some of the rules around SSP leave workers receiving less, or nothing at all. 

Currently, an employee has to be off work sick for three days before they receive SSP. This means that, for an employee working a typical five-day week, SSP in the first week drops to just £47. This is far from enough to live on. Scrapping the three-day wait, as Labour are promising to do if they win the election, would be an improvement in SSP for the 7.4 million workers who currently rely on it. 

Some employees miss out on even getting SSP due to the “lower earnings limit”. The lower earnings limit means that employees only receive SSP if they earn at least £123 per week. This rule leaves around 1.15 million low-paid workers without SSP, with the majority of these (69 per cent) being women. Scrapping the lower-earnings limit would extend SSP to these workers. The current government had previously consulted on scrapping this rule, but U-turned on this during the pandemic.  

Reform to the SSP system is much needed and has been a long time coming. Nobody should be plunged into hardship when they become sick. Scrapping the lower earnings limit and the three-day wait will be two important steps to making the system fairer.