Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Paragraph: 54
Amend legislation to permit Statutory Sick Pay payment alongside usual wages for phased returns.
Recommendation
We understand why the Government decided that the Covid-19 pandemic was the wrong time to introduce changes to Statutory Sick Pay, as these would have placed immediate additional costs on employers. This argument, which we believe is now less valid than during the pandemic, does not apply to enabling employees to receive a combination of SSP and usual wages in order to facilitate phased returns to work. Given how many employers permit phased returns where they can, as part of their own occupational sick pay arrangements, we can only assume, as the Minister said, that they find phased returns a useful tool in supporting employees back to work. Such flexibility, if not limited only to employees returning from periods of sickness absence, could also help people with fluctuating conditions to manage their Statutory Sick Pay 35 conditions better by reducing their hours periodically, as required, where this is in the interests of both them and their employer. The Government should amend legislation to permit Statutory Sick Pay to be paid in conjunction with usual wages ahead of financial year 2025–26.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and will amend the Period of Incapacity for Work through the Employment Rights Bill, allowing employees to receive SSP for individual days of incapacity and thus facilitate phased returns to work.
Paragraph Reference:
54
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government agrees with and recognises the effectiveness of employers offering a phased return to work. In the DWP Employer Survey 2022: research report 55% of employers who responded reported offering their employees a phased return to work following long-term sickness absence. Separately our employee survey showed of those who had a phased return to work, almost three-quarters felt this helped them return to work quicker than otherwise. Through the Employment Rights Bill we are amending the Period of Incapacity for Work so that it arises where a person has a day of incapacity for work, as opposed to where a person has four consecutive days of incapacity. This will mean employees will now be able to return to work, or work alternate days, without having to be off for 4 consecutive days to continue receiving SSP. As evidenced within the Regulatory Impact Assessment, phased returns to work can be an effective tool in helping people to return to and stay in work, thus helping to reduce the flow into economic inactivity and reducing cost on business of sickness absence.