Sick pay in the UK “is far too low” and “I’d double it”, Matt Hancock has told the Covid-19 inquiry.
Under questioning from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), former health secretary Mr Hancock was asked about self-isolation payments for people suffering from Covid-19.
Sam Jacobs, representing the TUC, said the Government in March 2020 made sick pay available from day one (rather than day three).
Messages at the time from Mr Hancock suggested while he was supportive, it only solved half the problem.
Asked what the other half of the problem was, Mr Hancock said: “Well sick pay in this country is far, far too low.
“It’s far lower than the European average, it encourages people to go to work when they should be getting better.
“Having low sick pay encourages the spread of communicable diseases.
“Having higher sick pay… would encourage employers to do more to look after the health of their employees.
“Before the pandemic, I’d been on an internal Government campaign to significantly increase sick pay. I’d double it if I had a magic wand.
“So moving from three days to one day of payment was a small step, which obviously was necessary for the pandemic – and I enthusiastically embraced – but I would have gone far, far higher.
“We needed isolation payments from the start. We got them in the end by September. And I pay tribute to the Trades Union Congress for their campaigning on this issue, which helped me get it over the line.”
Mr Hancock further praised Frances O’Grady, then general secretary of the TUC, saying she was a “great service to the country in the role that she was in and she made an argument that I very strongly believed in.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel