Covid inquiry must examine impact of UK’s ‘broken sick pay’ system, says TUC

Government austerity policies left the country ill-prepared for the Covid crisis, the TUC says. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

The Covid inquiry must take an unflinching look at how the UK’s lack of decent sick pay left the country “brutally exposed” during the pandemic, the TUC has said.

The UK entered the pandemic with the lowest rate of statutory sick pay (SSP) in the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, and with millions unable access it, the union body claimed.