Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the level of Statutory Sick Pay on trends in the number of people claiming Universal Credit.

The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the level of Statutory Sick Pay on trends in the number of people claiming Universal Credit.

The Department has undertaken a Regulatory Impact Assessment and an Equality Impact Assessment of the Statutory Sick Pay changes to remove the Lower Earnings Limit and remove the 3-day waiting period. Both impact assessments can be found here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6715f848386bf0964853d848/Impact_assessment_improve_access_statutory_sick_pay_removing_lower_earnings_limit_removing_waiting_period.pdf

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2024-0716/Statutory_Sick_Pay_EA.pdf