STATUTORY SICK PAY Earnings threshold
111.00
112.00
Standard rate
87.55
88.45
Fit for work service up and running
5 January 2015
The new Fit for Work service went live on 16 December 2014.
The new service can be accessed by separate websites for England and Wales and for Scotland . Presumably the Northern Irish access will be confirmed later.
Fit for Work is intended to help employers to better understand and manage sickness absence within the business. Expert and impartial advice is delivered by a team of occupational health professionals. The service claims that by supporting staff attendance, preventing sickness absence and helping absent employees return to work quicker, you can reduce business costs and increase productivity.
Fit for Work: a further update
6 January 2015
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have now published official guidance for employers on the new Fit for Work arrangements which clarifies the position of Northern Irish employees. The guidance for employers is quite comprehensive. Among other details, the guide confirms that employees who “are living outside England, Scotland or Wales” are ineligible for the scheme. So employees living in Northern Ireland are not to be included in the new arrangements.
DWP have at the same time published Fit for Work guidance for employees and guidance for GPs.
Part-time sick pay proposals for employees with fluctuating health conditions
26 January 2015
A report released this week will call on government to support measures to increase the flexibility of sickness absence policies to allow employees with fluctuating health conditions to pre-emptively arrange part-time sick leave. The Work Foundation’s Health at Work Policy Unit (HWPU) has launched its second policy paper on fluctuating conditions which looks at the role of policy in improving organisational resilience to fluctuating conditions in the workforce. The paper considers the challenges faced by employers in managing a workforce where the prevalence of chronic and fluctuating conditions is set to rise. It explores the kinds of support which employers will need from doctors and other healthcare professionals, from the welfare and benefits system and from other agencies such as the Fit for Work Service, Access to Work, Occupational Health services and patient advocacy groups. It also assess whether policy-makers have scope to do more to create a system of
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 481 of 521
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