§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average duration per claimant of receipt of(a) statutory sick pay, (b) the lower rate of short-term incapacity benefit, (c) the higher rate of short-term incapacity benefit and (d) the long-term rate of incapacity benefit. [18281]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Department does not routinely collect information on the duration of claims to Statutory Sick Pay. However, information produced by the 675W Association of British Insurers suggests that the average duration of a claim to Statutory Sick Pay is around three weeks.
The other information requested is in the table.
Average duration of claim Incapacity Benefit short term lower rate 13 weeks Incapacity Benefit short term higher rate 18 weeks Incapacity Benefit long term rate 5.26 years Source:
DSS 1 per cent. sample of recipients in Great Britain.
§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Gravesham on 29 July,Official Report, column 248, if she will publish those statistics on which the calculation of an approximate £120 million cost of extending statutory sick pay to employees earning below the lower earnings limit was made. [18293]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Government Actuary Department's best estimates of current weekly Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) beneficiaries are 305,000. The 1996–97 Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey estimated the total number of employees earning above the lower earnings limit to be 19.6 million, and the number below this limit to be 2.6 million.
A rate of sickness of 1.6 per cent. derived from the SSP caseload estimate is applied to the total employees below the lower earning limit and multiplied by the 1996–97 rate of SSP of £54.55, multiplied by 52 weeks to give an annual total of £120 million.
Note: Figures are approximate and are subject to some margin of error.