Cancer patients fighting for sick pay revolution so they can recover without money worries

Julie has worked in hospitality for 20 years. For 19 of those, she barely had a day off sick. Then last year, she was diagnosed with

She was told she needed surgery, then chemo or radiotherapy – but rushed back to work just three weeks after her lumpectomy and lymph node removal, as she couldn’t afford to be off.

“I had to return after three weeks, even though I had a severe breast infection,” Julie, in her 60s, from South Wales, says. “I had to wear gauze pads in my bra to absorb the leakage. It took three weeks of back-to-back ­antibiotics to clear up my infection.”

With children to feed, Julie says statutory sick pay – then £99 a week – wasn’t enough to make ends meet.

“I needed to clear the infection to enable my next stage of treatment to go ahead,” she says. “But what else could I do? I had no choice.”

Ahead of yesterday’s Labour ­government announcement on ­“once-in-a-generation” changes to workers’ rights, we have been speaking to cancer patients across the country about Britain’s broken sick pay system.

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Under current laws, workers are not entitled to until the fourth day of their illness and those who earn less than £123 a week cannot claim at all.

That is set to change under Angela Rayner’s new , which will mean SSP is paid from day one.

“The reforms will give new rights to 7.4million workers reliant on sick pay, plus a million who earn below the limit,” the Deputy Prime Minister says.

“This government is delivering the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation, boosting pay and ­productivity with employment laws fit for a modern economy.”

Over the past few weeks, we have been hearing from cancer patients fighting for a sick pay revolution. Nearly all will benefit from the new legislation – but many remain worried the ­government has not set a new rate for sick pay.

Current rates are just £116.75 a week, or £3 an hour for a full-time worker.coalition is calling for this to rise to at least 75% of the minimum wage – or around £320 a week for a full-time worker. The Work and Pensions Committee has also ­recommended raising SSP.

“The government’s plan to extend statutory sick pay and make it payable from day one is very welcome, but they further,” says Amanda Walters, director of the Safe Sick Pay Campaign.

“The low rate of sick pay is fundamentally unsafe and ­jeopardises workers’ recovery from illness.”

Raising the SSP rate would have helped Alan Barton, 65, a medical device engineer from ­Eastbourne, East Sussex, who was diagnosed with in 2021. When he became ill, he had recently started a new job, so wasn’t entitled to company sick pay.

After time off for surgery, he ended up working on and off through ­chemo and taking out loans, with his wife, Julie, 62 – because SSP was so low. His cancer is now terminal, and he is having palliative ­chemotherapy.

“It was very hard, very, very tiring and stressful,” he says. “When you’re facing all this, having financial problems is the last thing you need. I’m 65 and I’ve worked hard all my life. Sometimes you think of that saying, ‘Life sucks and then you die’.”

Dan Hine-Berry was diagnosed with lymphoma at just 23. Months of treatment, miles from home, meant he faced extra travel costs.

“When I was diagnosed with stage2 cancer, I was working for a big ­supermarket chain as an assistant store manager,” Dan says. “I’d been there six years and worked through the pandemic with them. They offered me just two weeks’ sick pay on my salary, then I was on £99 a week SSP.”

Nancy Digueno, 54, is a nurse living in Fulham, South West London, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. Her employer paid her in full for six months, but then she was put on half pay.

Despite undergoing surgery, ­chemotherapy and 15 rounds of ­radiotherapy, Nancy was forced to return to work full time while still in treatment, and needed support from Maggie’s charity.

“It is so stressful anyway and having that financial stress makes everything worse,” she says. “I still had the normal bills to pay.”

Farid Oladapo was in the final year of his International Politics degree when he was diagnosed with ­embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma – a rare cancer causing a tumour behind his eye.

The 24-year-old had been working 30-hour weeks at Ikea to support himself through college – but now found himself needing the support of charity

“I’m lucky I have a close family,” he says. “I was a student, with no ­dependents, and I found it impossible to survive on that amount, so how does anyone else?”

Farid, from South Croydon, South London, is now in remission but needs two hip replacements to repair damage caused by complications from his treatment. Determined to finish his studies, he completed his degree and recently started his first job in finance.

“If I could change things, I think SSP should be around half your salary,” he adds, “to allow people to pay their bills.”

A spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said: “No one should be forced to choose between their health and financial hardship, which is why we are launching a consultation on our plans to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay."

“These reforms which form part of the Employment Rights Bill are a core part of our mission to improve health outcomes, tackle inequalities by better supporting people who are managing a health condition in work and raising living standards across the country.”

Workers’ rights network, Organise, says it has heard from hundreds of employees with cancer and other serious illnesses who are struggling to survive financially as they go through treatment.

“We have been deluged by stories like these, it is ­absolutely heartbreaking,” says Roxana Khan- Williams, head of UK campaigns at Organise.

“I can’t emphasise enough just how important increasing the weekly amount of sick pay is going to be to help workers facing cancer and other serious illnesses.”

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