European Committee finds our sickness and unemployment benefit levels inadequate

Wed,24 January 2018
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The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) has published its annual conclusions on health, social security and social protection  for 2017.

View conclusions

These conclusions concerned the articles of the Charter relating to the thematic group “Health, social security and social protection”: 

  • the right to safe and healthy working conditions (Article 3),
  • the right to protection of health (Article 11),
  • the right to social security (Article 12),
  • the right to social and medical assistance (Article 13),
  • the right to benefit from social welfare services (Article 14),
  • the right of elderly persons to social protection (Article 23),
  • the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion (Article 30).

The Committee found that the situation in the United Kingdom is not in conformity with Article 12 section 1 of the 1961 European Social Charter on the grounds that:

  • the level of the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is inadequate
  • the minimum levels of the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) are  inadequate
  • the level of long term incapacity benefits is inadequate
  • the level of unemployment benefits is inadequate