Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the rate of statutory stick pay on (1) employee retention, (2) economic activity, and (3) growth.

The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the rate of Statutory Sick Pay on employee retention, economic activity and growth.

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. Our RIA demonstrates that businesses may stand to benefit from the changes through increased employee productivity, lower staff turnover and reduced recruitment costs. 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