Government deems the impact of the ERB on social care to be medium to high impact due to:

• social care being a low-pay occupation
• contracts for low-paid workers being shorter in low-pay sectors
• the use of zero-hours contracts in some parts of the sector
• the generalised use of SSP as the default sickness remuneration

And that the impact on small and micro businesses will be higher than larger organisations due to the lack of economies of scale in implementation at a business level.

Government notes that only 20% of private sector workers are currently union members and they do not perceive this to change radically in the short to medium term.

Read about this and more in our weekly newsletter for 5 November 2025