Fixing the UK’s broken sick pay regime would reduce the spread of infectious diseases – and be a small step towards a fairer country
Sajid Javid has begun a rather dramatic U-turn. Until recently, the health secretary insisted that care workers and frontline NHS staff had to get vaccinated against Covid or find another post, but the policy has now been dropped. Compulsory vaccination is still good health policy, he told fellow MPs, but ministers worry about a plunge in staff numbers. Yet there is a policy that public health officials, doctors and trade unionists have been calling for since the start of the pandemic, and that would not infringe on civil liberties or dent staff numbers: introducing a proper sick pay system. Doing that would reduce the spread of infectious diseases, ease the cost-of-living crisis for the working poor during this pandemic, and be a small step towards a fairer country.
The UK’s statutory sick pay system is in terrible health. The previous health secretary, Matt Hancock, admitted that he couldn’t live on what it pays, currently £96.35 a week. No surprise there: it is among the lowest sick pay in the industrialised world.
