Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to take steps to improve Statutory Sick Pay.

The Government’s 2019 Health is Everyone’s Business Consultation proposed a package of reforms which aimed to reduce ill-health related job loss and support disabled people and people with health conditions to stay in, and thrive in, work. This included proposals for (limited) reform of SSP.

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.