Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate the Department has made of the additional annual cost to employers arising from the removal of the Statutory Sick Pay waiting period and Lower Earnings Limit, broken down by (a) business size and (b) industrial sector.

Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is part of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay ensuring the safety net of sick pay is available to those who need it most. Widening eligibility to the up to 1.3m employees who were previously not entitled to SSP, and removing the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of work missed due to sickness, were introduced to help ensure that no one should have to worry about whether they can take time off when they are ill.

Prior to the introduction of the SSP reforms, the Government published an impact assessment which can be found at Impact assessment: Improve access Statutory Sick Pay removing Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period.

The government will monitor the impact of the SSP changes and consider the experiences of employers as part of the post implementation review.