1.6 million people can't pay for medicine - Britain wants to increase the basic rate of statutory sick pay!
British ministers are being urged to raise the basic rate of statutory sick pay from £3 an hour, one of the lowest in the developed world, after a report found the government's changes would leave more than 1.6 million people unable to pay essential bills.
Charities are warning that only a fraction of low-paid workers will be helped to avoid the lost earnings "pit", despite improvements to statutory sick pay (SSP) in the Employment Rights Bill, which will be considered by MPs this week.
A report by Citizens Advice has revealed that the changes will leave 78% of those on the lowest incomes, the equivalent of 1.6 million people, unable to pay their bills if they have to rely on SSP for four weeks.
The UK has one of the "lowest" SSP rates in the developed world, according to the Resolution Foundation, at just £118.75 a week or £3 an hour for full-time workers from April.
More than 7 million people in the UK rely on SSP when they are ill, but the small scale means that someone working full-time on the minimum wage would lose 70% of their income if they relied on it for a week, regardless of changes.
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, previously promised to raise the level of sick pay when it was £95.85 in 2021, but has opted to keep the rate the same despite other changes in the Employment Rights Bill.
However, the law will remove two long-standing problems with SSP, meaning that the lowest paid workers will now be entitled to sick pay and that it will be paid from the first day of sickness in the country of the fourth day.
Citizens Advice, along with the Safe Sick Pay campaign, is calling on the Government to increase SSP to a percentage of the national living wage of £12.21 an hour for over-21s from April or a share of earnings.
Its rise of just £67 a week, on par with statutory maternity pay, would replace less than half the earnings of someone working full-time on the minimum wage, the organization said.
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