Newcastle hits the second place- for the uptake of the first dose of Covid vaccination
Latest Tory achievement. The NHS is no longer top of the fable for health care
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Department for Health did not respond to a request from The Observer for a comment on the rise in demand for youth mental health services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department responded to the Observer on 17 July.
Tories the party of law and order? While assaults on police are soaring their pay has been frozen. Imagine what they’d say if a Labour government was doing this!
Is there a doctor in the house? Quite possibly not. The Royal College of General Practitioners to recruit 6000 more doctors and 26000 staff to meet the growing need
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the rate of statutory sick pay in the UK of £95.85 per week is lower than the average of other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; and when they plan they address this issue.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) provides a minimum level of income for employees when they are sick or incapable of work. It is paid by employers at £96.35 per week for up to 28 weeks in any one period of entitlement. Employers are legally required to pay SSP to eligible employees who are off work sick or incapable of work, where employees meet the qualifying conditions. Some employers may also decide to pay more, and for longer, through Occupational Sick Pay.
The costs of SSP are met in full by employers. It is therefore important to strike a balance between ensuring employees receive financial support when they are sick or incapable of work with the costs to employers of providing such support.
SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider government offer to support people in times of need. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their personal circumstances.
The government has previously consulted on reform to SSP, and as we learn to live with a new virus there is space to take a broader look at the role of SSP. The government maintains that SSP provides an important link between the employee and employer but that now is not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system.
Latest Tory trick. They announced a pay increase for NHS staff of 3%. in itself far from generous, and now it comes out that £500m will come out of its staffs wages!
Two million low paid workers, most of them women, can’t claim statutory sick pay, which at £95.85 week is the lowest in the industrial world
Don’t be the third or more child in a family, The government is limiting benefits to more than 1 million childrdren aged over 2
The price of Tory cuts. 250,000 people in England are on the waiting lists for social care the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services report.