Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent comparative assessment she has made of the potential benefits to (a) workers, (b) employers and (c) the NHS of providing workers who have physical and mental health conditions with (i) early access to free clinical support and (ii) 28 consecutive days of absence.

The government is exploring a range of policy options aiming to reduce ill-health related job loss. The consultation ‘Health is Everyone’s Business: Proposals to Reduce Ill Health-related Job Loss’ closed in October 2019.

It set out proposals to boost Government support available to employers to support employees who are managing health conditions in work and to manage sickness absence more effectively. It included proposals to encourage employers to take early, sustained and proportionate steps to support a sick employee to return to work, reform Statutory Sick Pay, improve occupational health availability and improve the provision of advice and support for employers. We have received a good response from a range of stakeholders, which we are reviewing.

We know that being in the right work is good for health and that being out of work can have a detrimental effect on health. In addition to working with employers to help individuals get the support they need, at the right time, to return to work, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) provides a minimum level of income for up to 28 weeks to employees needing to take time off to recover from short-term illness.

There is limited evidence to suggest that making the tax treatment more generous is the most effective way of incentivising more employers to offer occupational health provision, if the initial cost of provision is the main barrier for them.