I’m glad it was the GP’s head that said it, would be worried if it was another part of the body
Whenever I go to my doctor and tell them about my health problems, they ask if I’m working, and I reply that yes I am, around forty four hours a week.
They generally react with disbelief and ask how I’m still managing a full time job but my response is always “What can I do? I get paid by the hour and live paycheque to paycheque. Sick pay is half pay.”
I sincerely believe a lot of doctors don’t even realise that statutory sick pay is half pay.
The one thing that I hoped would be a silver lining to the horror that was the pandemic was that it would usher in a change in attitude towards sickness and sick pay. Not only did that not happen, even the temporary minor improvements made have now been rolled back.
Statutory sick pay is an absolute joke, so unless you’re lucky enough to have a job which pays full sick pay or have a massive amount of savings available, you’re forced to work even when you really shouldn’t, and the consequences are awful.
The predictable result of stagnating wages and increasing costs.
“You will own nothing and work till you die, praising those who assigned you your fate.”
Is it any wonder when sick pay is fucking terrible ? I’m lucky if I’m off for Upto 6 months I get full pay minus unsociable hours premium. Then 6 months half pay.
My old man has been off 8 months so far as he found out earlier this year he has epilepsy and he can’t get signed off as fit to work by his company. He’s struggling on half pay.
How people are supposed to survive any amount of time on SSP is beyond me.
My wife was off work for three months with stress (as in, hair falling out and lost two stone terrifyingly rapidly type of stress) and her pay check for those three months was miserable, absolutely compounding the problem. Her work were not interested in supporting her in a phased return or similar. She physically couldn’t work and no one in “the system” (her work, the DWP) gave two shits about her beyond “okay but when can you go back?”. Just a total lack of compassion. We need better sick pay rights and just, I don’t know, a total overhaul of how we think about work and illness.
A mate of mine gets no pay from work for the first two or three days if you call in sick. She works in catering and hospitality, at the moment in a school, so comes into contact with hundreds of people a day. She cannot afford to take days off but she does (mostly) because she is a lovely person who doesn’t want her team and those around them getting ill. The people in her team though who are on less than her come in with stinking colds and coughs because it literally means not being able to eat if they don’t get paid. So the cooks and serving staff are coughing, sneezing and wheezing all day while prepping food and serving food.
8 comments
I’m glad it was the GP’s head that said it, would be worried if it was another part of the body
Whenever I go to my doctor and tell them about my health problems, they ask if I’m working, and I reply that yes I am, around forty four hours a week.
They generally react with disbelief and ask how I’m still managing a full time job but my response is always “What can I do? I get paid by the hour and live paycheque to paycheque. Sick pay is half pay.”
I sincerely believe a lot of doctors don’t even realise that statutory sick pay is half pay.
The one thing that I hoped would be a silver lining to the horror that was the pandemic was that it would usher in a change in attitude towards sickness and sick pay. Not only did that not happen, even the temporary minor improvements made have now been rolled back.
Statutory sick pay is an absolute joke, so unless you’re lucky enough to have a job which pays full sick pay or have a massive amount of savings available, you’re forced to work even when you really shouldn’t, and the consequences are awful.
The predictable result of stagnating wages and increasing costs.
“You will own nothing and work till you die, praising those who assigned you your fate.”
Is it any wonder when sick pay is fucking terrible ? I’m lucky if I’m off for Upto 6 months I get full pay minus unsociable hours premium. Then 6 months half pay.
My old man has been off 8 months so far as he found out earlier this year he has epilepsy and he can’t get signed off as fit to work by his company. He’s struggling on half pay.
How people are supposed to survive any amount of time on SSP is beyond me.
My wife was off work for three months with stress (as in, hair falling out and lost two stone terrifyingly rapidly type of stress) and her pay check for those three months was miserable, absolutely compounding the problem. Her work were not interested in supporting her in a phased return or similar. She physically couldn’t work and no one in “the system” (her work, the DWP) gave two shits about her beyond “okay but when can you go back?”. Just a total lack of compassion. We need better sick pay rights and just, I don’t know, a total overhaul of how we think about work and illness.
A mate of mine gets no pay from work for the first two or three days if you call in sick. She works in catering and hospitality, at the moment in a school, so comes into contact with hundreds of people a day. She cannot afford to take days off but she does (mostly) because she is a lovely person who doesn’t want her team and those around them getting ill. The people in her team though who are on less than her come in with stinking colds and coughs because it literally means not being able to eat if they don’t get paid. So the cooks and serving staff are coughing, sneezing and wheezing all day while prepping food and serving food.
We have learned nothing.