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Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (RATIFICATION: 1954)

Other comments on C102

Observation

Direct Request

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Part II (Medical care) of the Convention. Please explain, with reference to concrete provisions of the national laws and regulations, how effect is given to the following provisions of the Convention, for which the reports on Conventions Nos 24, 25 and 102 and on the European Code of Social Security (Code) contain no relevant information.

Article 8. Please confirm that medical care is provided for “any morbid condition, whatever its cause,” and that the national legislation contains no limitations in this respect (for example, in case of attempted suicide, intoxication by alcohol or drugs, participation in a fight, etc.).

Article 10. Please confirm that general practitioner care includes domiciliary visiting and explain how the list of “the essential pharmaceutical supplies” is established in the United Kingdom.

Article 11. Please indicate what qualifying period of residence or stay in the country is established for the entitlement to medical care.

Articles 69 (Suspension of benefit) and 70 (Right of complaint and appeal). Please indicate how these provisions are applied in national law and practice.

Part III (Sickness benefit). Article 15(a) (Persons protected). The Committee notes that Part III of the Convention/Code is applied to prescribed classes of the economically active population. All employees who have average earnings above the Lower Earning Level (LEL – £112 a week from 6 April 2016) applying to National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). All employees paying employed earner’s Class 1 NICs and all self-employed workers paying Class 2 rate of NICs are covered by the general scheme of Employment and Support Allowance, in cases where they are not entitled to SSP from an employer or where SSP is not appropriate (for example, the self-employed). Please indicate how the LEL is determined for employees and the self-employed, and the number of low-paid employees and self-employed excluded from coverage because of earning less than the LEL or not being able to pay respectively Class 1 or Class 2 rate of NICs. Please explain what other forms of protection in case of sickness are available for these classes of the economically active population.

Article 17 (Qualifying period). According to the report on Convention No. 25, workers in agriculture are covered by the general scheme for Sickness Insurance as described in Part III of the United Kingdom’s 2016 report on Convention No. 102. According to this later report, in Wales and Scotland conditions of entitlement of agricultural workers to Agricultural Sick Pay (ASP) are determined by the special legislation – the Agricultural Wages (Wales) Order 2016 in accordance with the Agricultural Sector (Wales) Act 2014, and the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order (No. 63) 2015. The latter, for example, makes provision for calculating the amount of ASP that agricultural employees are entitled to when they have been in continuous employment with the same employer for at least 52 weeks. After a period of 13 weeks of receiving ASP, an agricultural worker would be, if they are still sick, entitled to SSP. Agricultural workers who have worked less than 52 weeks are entitled to SSP only. Recalling that agricultural workers are covered by the Convention on the basis of equality of treatment with industrial workers, the Committee asks the Government to explain the difference between ASP and SSP as regards the level of benefit and the conditions of entitlement, particularly as regards the 52-week qualifying period of employment required for ASP.

Articles 68 (Suspension of benefit) and 69 (Right of complaint and appeal). According to the Government, it is up to the employer to decide whether they accept that their employee is incapable of work and eligible for payment of SSP. Recalling that benefits provided under the Convention shall be guaranteed by law irrespective of the will of the employer, the Committee asks the Government to indicate, with reference to concrete legislative provisions, in what circumstances the employer may at his own will suspend or refuse SSP to the sick worker and what other sanctions may be imposed on the worker concerned. Please specify what procedures of complaint and appeal are available to the worker to contest such decisions or sanctions of the employer.

Article 72(1) (Participative management of the benefit scheme). The Government confirms in its report that SSP is the main benefit covering the majority of persons protected during the whole period of payment of sickness benefit. The Committee observes that, where the administration of the benefit is not entrusted to the public authorities but is left in the hands of the employers, as is the case with SSP, representatives of the workers protected shall participate in the management, or be associated therewith in a consultative capacity, under prescribed conditions. Please indicate whether workers’ representatives are associated in any capacity with the administration of SSP at the level of individual undertakings or industry, or through collective agreements, or otherwise, and what statutory conditions may have been prescribed for such participation.

Part IV (Unemployment benefit), Article 23 (Length of the qualifying period). The Committee notes that to qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) (Contributory) a claimant must satisfy the primary and additional NICs conditions stipulated in section 2 of the Jobseekers Act 1995, which result in the length of the qualifying period extending over “the last two complete years before the beginning of the relevant benefit year” (section 2(1)(b) of the Act). The Committee observes that in the great majority of European States the length of the qualifying period for the entitlement to unemployment benefit does not surpass one year of contribution or employment, which is considered sufficient to preclude abuse of the benefit, in accordance with Article 23 of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to explain the reasons for: (a) establishing a comparatively lengthier qualifying period for JSA; and (b) the additional NICs conditions mentioned in section 2(2) and (3) of the Jobseekers Act, which are difficult to understand for ILO experts.

Article 24 (Minimum duration of benefit). According to section 5(1) of the Jobseekers Act, the period for which a person is entitled to a contribution-based JSA “shall not exceed, in the aggregate, 182 days in any period for which his entitlement is established by reference (under section 2(1)(b)) to the same two years”. Please explain how this provision ensures that contribution-based JSA shall not be granted for less than 91 days (13 weeks) within a period of 12 months, in accordance with Article 24 of the Convention.

Part V (Old-age benefit), Article 26(2). Increased pensionable age. Under the Pensions Act 2011, the State Pension age for women will gradually increase from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2018. Then, between 2018 and 2020, the State Pension age will increase from 65 to 66 for both men and women. The State Pension age will increase from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028 under the Pensions Act 2014. The timing of the increase from 67 to 68 is set from 2044 to 2046 according to the Pensions Act 2007. According to the report, the changes in State Pension age reflect increasing longevity in society and make the State Pension affordable in the long term. The Pensions Act 2014 contains a framework for further changes to State Pension age through a regular review by the Government. As part of the review process, the Government is required to commission a report from the Government Actuary’s Department looking at the implications of life expectancy data for State Pension age. The legislation also requires the Government to commission a further independent report covering other relevant factors. This may include variations in life expectancy between socio-economic groups, and the wider economic context at the time of a review. All reports prepared as part of the review must be published. The Government will publish a report on their review of the State Pension age every six years. The first review will report to Parliament before 7 May 2017. The Committee hopes that the Government’s next report on the Convention will explain the findings of the first review of the increase of the State Pension age beyond 65 years, particularly with regard to the working ability, labour market participation and worklessness of persons aged 65–67 engaged in manual labour, including in onerous and hazardous occupations entailing premature physical ageing. Please confirm that, following the abolishment of the default retirement age, in the United Kingdom there are no occupations that are deemed by national legislation to be arduous or unhealthy for the purpose of lowering the pensionable age. In this connection, the Committee notes that the Office for National Statistics plans to produce regular publications on “Healthy Life Expectancy and Disability-Free Life Expectancy” broken down by social economic class, which will include the classes of workers engaged in manual labour, and that the Office for National Statistics will consider what might be appropriate data and research for understanding the labour market impact on the said classes of manual workers.

Part X (Survivors’ benefit), Articles 63 (Qualifying period) and 69 (Suspension of benefit). Please indicate how these provisions are applied in national law and practice.

Part XIV (Miscellaneous provisions), Article 76(1). Consolidated reporting on the Convention/Code. In its 2015 conclusions on the Code, the Committee invited the Government to coordinate the fulfilment of its compliance and reporting obligations under the Code, Convention No. 102 and the relevant provisions of the European Social Charter, 1961, with a view to improving the quality and consistency of the information provided in the reports. To facilitate the integrated management and comparative analysis of the United Kingdom’s obligations under different social security instruments, the Committee referred the Government to the coordination tables, reporting timelines and relevant comments of the supervisory bodies compiled in the ILO Technical Note on the state of application of the provisions for social security of the international treaties on social rights ratified by the United Kingdom, published in the country profile on the database. Consequently, the Government representative of the United Kingdom in the Governmental Committee on the European Social Charter and the European Code of Social Security has requested the ILO to consolidate the information provided in the previous reports on international social security instruments ratified by the United Kingdom. In preparing the Consolidated Report (CR) the Committee has taken into account the information extracted from the previous UK reports on the Code and ILO social security Conventions Nos 12, 17, 24, 25, 42 and 102 supplied during the period 2006–16. The reports prior to 2006 were not taken into account as the information contained in them is likely to be outdated. The resulting CR thus contains all the relevant information provided by the United Kingdom over the last decade on the application of these instruments and greatly improves the quality of reporting in terms of the consistency of the information available, coherence across different schemes and benefits providing protection, and the efficacy of the regulatory framework governing the national social security system.

With regard to the completeness of the available information, the CR reveals certain information gaps which do not permit to assess compliance with the indicated provisions of the Convention/Code, as is the case for example with Articles 68 (cases of suspension of benefits) and 69 (the right of complaint and appeal) for Parts II and III of the Convention/Code. Not only these provisions are highlighted in the CR but relevant questions of the report forms on the Code and ILO Conventions are included as a reminder to complete the CR with the requested information. With respect to the clarity of the information provided, particularly as regards rules and elements taken into account for the calculation of the level of benefits, in many instances it requires technical clarifications from the national experts and concrete references to the corresponding provisions of the national regulations. In order to facilitate the experts’ dialogue on these highly technical issues which depend upon the context in which they are used, the statements in question are highlighted and appropriate marks and questions are entered by the Committee directly in the text of the CR. In view of the significant volume (120 pages) and the complexity of the CR, it is also equipped with user-friendly navigation signs and summary tables. The information included by the Government in its reports, but which is not directly relevant to the legal obligations under the respective provisions of the Code and ILO Conventions, is reproduced in the annexes to the CR. The Committee attaches the CR to the 2016 conclusions on the Code and asks the Government to complete it with the missing information, technical clarifications, provisions of the national legislation and statistics.

Sources and consistency of statistical data. According to Article 76(1)(b) of Convention No. 102 and Article 74(1)(b) of the Code, the reports shall include evidence of compliance with statistical conditions specified with respect to the number of persons protected, the rates of benefits and the proportion of the financial resources constituted by the insurance contributions of employees protected. It should be noted that the same statistical information given in reports on different instruments often comes from different sources and databases used by different government agencies contributing to the report, and is not compatible. It is also not uncommon for the source of information not being indicated at all or the exact data being replaced by ad hoc estimates. The Committee recalls that one of the main characteristics of the Code and ILO social security Conventions consists in that compliance with their provisions is established by reference to precise numbers and percentages, which makes the quality, consistency and comparability of the statistical information an essential condition of the effective functioning of the supervisory mechanism. The Committee has therefore elaborated a simplified template for the statistical data requested in the report forms on the Code and ILO Conventions, which is attached to the 2016 conclusions on the Code, and has prefilled it with the data given in the Government’s latest reports, which may at times appear to be divergent or controversial. The Committee asks the Government to check the data for consistency, to fill in the lacking information, to align the data for the same time basis to enable comparison, and to specify the official sources of statistics which shall henceforth be continuously used by the Government for this purpose.