Eligibility

Pre-existing sick-pay funding and eligibility

Revised or new funding during the pandemic

Limitations

Eligibility:

Employed

Pre-existing sick-pay funding and eligibility:

Statutory sick pay: £96.35 a week in 2021, paid up to 28 weeks a year. To be covered, workers have to be classed as an employee or agency worker and earn an average of at least £120 a week.
At least half – and perhaps as high as three-quarters – of employers top up the rate under occupational sick pay schemes.

Revised or new funding during the pandemic:

The four-day wait before payment kicks in has been removed.
Statutory sick pay includes exposed contacts in eligibility criteria.
The government has introduced a relief package to cover the costs of statutory sick pay for isolating employees for small and medium-sized businesses.

Limitations:

The replacement rate is low and only covers a quarter of the average worker’s earnings.
Some two million of the lowest-paid workers do not meet the eligibility requirements for statutory sick pay.

Eligibility:

Self-employed

Pre-existing sick-pay funding and eligibility:

None

Revised or new funding during the pandemic:

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme: the government pays 80% of a self-employed person’s profits for up to three months, with a maximum claim of £7,500, if they cannot work because of Covid-19. From July 2021, the level of support will depend on the amount of earnings lost.

Limitations:

Currently the grant is only available as a lump sum, so individuals self-isolating for the standard 10-day period can only claim for a full three-month period.

Eligibility:

Employed or self-employed

 

Revised or new funding during the pandemic:

Self-isolation support payments: £500 support payments are available to employees or self-employed workers who are required to self-isolate, and receive benefits targeted at low-income families. Councils have also been given funding to offer discretionary payments to other low-income workers who need financial assistance to self-isolate.

Limitations:

The support payments have narrow eligibility criteria, with only one in eight workers qualifying.

 

Pre-existing sick-pay funding and eligibility:

Universal Credit: benefit payments of between £344 and £596.58 a month (depending on age, marital status, earnings and other sources of financial support) for people on a low income or out of work. There are top-ups for individuals with children, disabilities or health conditions, or who need help paying rent.

Revised or new funding during the pandemic:

The level of Universal Credit was increased by £20 a week in April 2020, but this increase is due to stop at the end of September 2021.
Requirements of the minimum income floor have been temporarily relaxed to extend coverage to self-employed people with no or low earnings.

 

Pre-existing sick-pay funding and eligibility:

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA): £74.70 a week, available for individuals over the age of 25 who are unable to work because of a disability or health condition (different rates apply for couples applying jointly, and/or with dependents). Individuals must have previously paid National Insurance contributions as an employee or self-employed worker. (Individuals are unable to claim ESA and statutory sick pay at the same time.)

Revised or new funding during the pandemic:

ESA has been made available from day one of absence from work (instead of day eight usually).

Limitations:

The ESA rate is lower than the statutory sick pay rate and below the National Living Wage.