Workers’ Worry of Financial Impact of Sick Days

Half of UK workers are worried about the impact on their income if they were to fall ill for more than a month, according to new research. 

The latest analysis by Royal London has revealed that a massive 52% of workers say they would be troubled about their finances if they were to become too unwell to work for over a month.

This comes as official figures show that a million workers go off sick for more than a month every year.

Jennifer Gilchrist, protection specialist at Royal London, said employees must think about how they would manage their finances if they were faced with this situation.

This comes as the average UK worker stands to lose almost £450 in pay if they were off sick for a week without contractual sick pay.

She said: “Falling ill unexpectedly could happen to anyone. With a million workers off sick for more than a month, it’s important to think about how you would manage financially and make plans, so you do not have the added financial worry if you were to fall ill.”                         

Employees are entitled to £92.05 a week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks, yet 42% of those quizzed said they do not think this is enough to live on if they were off sick for more than a year.

Interestingly, a massive 60% UK workers said they found their employer’s sick pay policies difficult to understand, with one in six workers claiming that they do not know what their employer’s policy is. 

Employers may enhance SSP, but different companies have different policies. However, a quarter of those surveyed thought the opposite, and mistakenly believed that sick pay policies were the same across all companies and industries. 

In fact, some employers offer contractual sick pay, which is more generous than SSP.