Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing qualifying days in the context of the eligibility criteria for Statutory Sick Pay.

In the Health is Everyone’s Business consultation, the Government set out proposals for limited reforms to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), including consideration of the role qualifying days have.

In response to the consultation (2021), the Government maintained that SSP provides an important link between the employee and employer but that this was not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system. The Government is continuing to keep the SSP system under review.