• Vast majority of UK adults (78%) said they would have to consider returning to work before recovered if forced to rely on sick pay
• Clear majority (59%) think rate of Statutory Sick Pay is too low
• Research puts pressure on Government to fix UK sick pay – the Safe Sick Pay Campaign

Most adults think the UK's rate of sick pay is too low, and the vast majority of workers say they would consider returning to work before they had recovered if they had to survive on it, according to research from the Safe Sick Pay Campaign.

In a poll carried out by Opinium on behalf of the Safe Sick Pay Campaign, 59% of people said that the UK's rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP - £99 per week) is too low. Despite the health risks, 78% of workers said they would have to consider going into work while sick rather than rely on SSP.

The findings are based on a nationally representative poll of 1000 people carried out in August 2022 and add pressure on the Government to fix SSP before the...

• Landmark cross-sector intervention as 30 organisations write to new DWP Minister
• 12 union leaders and 18 charity directors call for urgent action
• Reforms needed to avert cost of living disaster for millions of workers, say campaigners

A major coalition of trade unions, health charities and migrant rights campaigners, alongside the Safe Sick Pay Campaign, have called for urgent reform to the UK’s Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) system to protect public health amid the cost of living crisis.

In a letter sent today, 11 October, coordinated by the Safe Sick Pay campaign, mental health charity Mind and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), 30 organisations called on the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chloe Smith MP, to introduce reforms that would protect workers.

Signatories include 12 trade union General Secretaries such as Paul Nowak of the TUC and Sharon Graham of Unite, as well as Chief Executives of major charities such as Mind and Disabilities Rights UK. 

The...

•  Landmark report makes the case for safe sick pay based on year-long research project
• Safe Sick Pay Campaign launched alongside new research

The vast majority of cleaners in the UK have no access to sick pay, according to new research published by the Safe Sick Pay Campaign.

In a report released today, 21 September, the Safe Sick Pay Campaign published the results of a year-long listening campaign, in which researchers consulted over 350 cleaners from different backgrounds and sectors, only 21% of whom said they had access to sick pay, and 35% said they had been into work when sick.

The report, Safe Sick Pay: the Case for Change, is being published to mark the launch of the new campaign, and brings together the extensive literature on the need for sick pay reform, based on research by charities, trade unions and the private sector. It also makes the economic case for a better sick pay system that will ensure workers can stay at home to recover, and prevent the spread of...

• Gatherings in four languages build on #CleanersUnited listening campaign
• 500 cleaners asked to envisage a better industry
• Workshops will feed into shared strategy with unions and policy experts

The Centre for Progressive Change (CPC) is launching a new project aimed at bringing 500 cleaners together to build a shared vision and strategy for a better industry.

A series of workshops, beginning in August, will be hosted in at least four languages, in which cleaners will be asked how they would improve the cleaning industry to build better conditions and more secure livelihoods for cleaners.

The project, supported by £50,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, builds on the large-scale listening campaign already carried out as part of #CleanersUnited. These workshops aim to generate deeper understanding of all of the key issues affecting cleaners in the UK, and how they can be improved.

Following the imagination...

We’re preparing a national campaign for better sick pay. Read more about why here.

Who gets Statutory Sick Pay?

• A third of workers only get Statutory Sick Pay. They are mainly on low incomes, and often in precarious work. They are more likely to be women, people of colour and from migrant backgrounds.

What about everyone else?

• Around half of employers have their own policies, under which they top up Statutory Sick Pay, usually to your ordinary wages, at least for a while. Nearly two million workers get no sick pay at all, because they don’t earn over £120 per week with any one employer, though many have multiple employers.

How did we get here?

• Statutory Sick Pay was introduced in 1982, but hasn’t kept up with changes to how we work and live. Today, it's nowhere near enough to cover the cost of living.

What happens in other countries?

• The UK has one of the lowest rates of Statutory Sick Pay of any wealthy economy....

We’re preparing to launch a new national organising campaign for a better sick pay system across the UK.

Here’s why:

1. Statutory Sick Pay is the money you are entitled to if you are employed but get sick and can’t work. It is less than £100 per week  and nowhere near enough to cover the bills and other living costs.
2. Around half of employers only provide Statutory Sick Pay, so millions of workers - mainly low income and key workers such as cleaners and carers - face financial hardship if they get sick, whether that's long-term or just a few days.
3. Statutory Sick Pay is only available from the fourth day of illness, so you lose over half a week’s wages before getting anything.
4. You’re also only entitled to Statutory Sick Pay from an employer with whom you earn more than £120 per week. This applies even if you earn more than this from multiple employers, like many cleaners. Nearly two million people fall through this...

Author: John Tuckey, a volunteer in the communications team for The Centre for Progressive Change. He’s a journalist who’s worked for the BBC and national press, and an editor and trainer in communication for development.

In holding relational meetings to build power, I did something I thought impossible an hour earlier. 

In the Centre for Progressive Change’s foundation course Session 5, you’re expected to have a meeting with someone you’ve never met before, in order to find a mutual interest that can help you work together. How on earth can you do that?

I’ve just finished the Centre for Progressive Change’s foundation course in organising for social change, and I’m really enjoying being taken outside of my comfort zone of negative assumptions about certain concepts. These are the need to: build power, understand someone’s self-interest and compromise. For many people who consider themselves progressive, these are...

By Amanda Walters – Director at Centre for Progressive Change

In the summer of 2016, I took over the campaign to get Heathrow airport to become a Living Wage employer. The campaign had already been running for two years but there had been a 6-month period of inaction.

Leveraging Interests

We started by researching online to help us paint a fuller picture of the airport’s interests and challenges, and to see what potential opportunities we could utilise. In October 2016, Theresa May’s Cabinet was going to decide on whether to back the third runway at Heathrow airport. We knew that the last thing the airport would want ahead of that decision is any public action and bad press. Therefore, this presented an opportunity for us to cause reputational problems for the airport as a way to disrupt their bid unless they became a Living Wage employer. This would give us one month to organise workers into action.

Identifying Leaders

Fr Gerard, from St Anselm’s church...

by Amanda Walters - Director at the Centre for Progressive Change

Initiating a campaign can feel like a daunting task! It can be hard to know where to start, and it can feel like there is a lot to do.

However, through my own Organising, and researching organisations that win campaigns, I have seen that there is a tried and tested formula for starting an effective campaign. Below you can see the steps that the best Organisers out there follow and a brief breakdown of each step.

Power Structure Analysis

A Power Structure Analysis is a tool that allows you to see how much power those that have a stake in the fight have. It is key in order to design an effective strategy so that you can build your power and influence those that will be making the decision on your issue.

Identifying Leaders

In order to win a campaign you need to have a mass of people in your community or workplace with you. Otherwise decision makers, such as politicians, can decide...

by Amanda Walters - Director at the Centre for Progressive Change

Another Fail

As we waited in the freezing December cold, I took out my phone one more time to see if the news had come in yet. My fingers frozen from being kettled for hours made it hard to work the pad. Finally, the screen lit up, but I could see no headlines had come through yet.

The mood in Trafalgar square was ominous as we waited for the results of the vote on whether the government were going to rise university tuition fees from £3,000 a year to £9,000 a year. Everyone in the square was cold, tired and hungry. Some people were building fires, some were trying to break into the Treasury, while thousands of others were standing around waiting impatiently for the results.

The last 6 months prior to this point had been relentless. For me, as the Campaigns Officer at the University of Manchester Students’ Union, every waking moment in those months I spent engaging students in Manchester and moving...