To think 10 days paid sick leave a year is not very much?

[patandjess]

I’ve been offered a job that gives 10 days paid sick leave a year, then after that you’re on statutory sick pay (£109 a week as far as I can tell).

It’s a senior role in a creative industry.

Is this usual? I’ve been self-employed for a long time so forgive my ignorance. What happens if someone gets a serious illness or is signed off with e.g. stress? Do they have to live on £109 a week?

I had Covid at the beginning of the year and was ill for over a week, so that would have been about 6 days. Then a few other illnesses dotted throughout the year and there goes your 10 days.

Curious to know what other workplaces offer and whether this is usual or not.

I’ve never had a job with sick pay or qualified for SSP, so I’ve never had a paid sick day.

I wouldn’t work for 10 days sick pay, we wouldn’t expect our employees to work for that either. Medical appointments we do ask, if possible, to be made outside working hours ie regular dentist appointments, vitamin B12 injections (which was a huge pisstake by one employee) but emergency appointments obviously need to be taken on work time and employees should be paid for these.

We pay 6 months full pay and six months half pay after 26 weeks of service.

My company gives a set amount of days depending on length of service (I've been there for just over 5 years so get the maximum of 20 days). Recently fell in bathroom and broken bones and now having further issues, been off for aprox 8 weeks with no way to know when I'll be able to go back. All I say is thank god for income protection as SSP is a joke!

I was just about to write almost the same thing. You really don’t know what can happen in life.

Several years ago, I started a new role in London. I wasn’t off sick at all for a full year then I came down with pneumonia and had to take 3 weeks off. I was told by the charity I worked for I wasn’t getting full pay for the 3rd week because my sick pay had ran out.

I was a lot younger then and hadn’t looked into the terms of the jobs sick pay probably partly because I rarely got sick and never took “duvet days” or even mental health days! It was quite a shock as I’d recently moved down to London and things were very expensive on my wage as it was.

All my jobs since then have had 6 months sick pay both private and public sector.

Ten days is really poor especially nowadays with covid around. I had covid for the first time last year and was very sick for two weeks with another 2 weeks of severe post viral fatigue and that would have been ALL my sick pay entitlement gone before I could even get out of bed.

Standard for private sector. Unfortunately one of the reasons the NHS is on its knees is because of its super generous sickness pay. Not only do they have to pay sick pay for 12 mnths they then have to pay double the amount for cover using bank nurses. So if one nurse goes off sick it costs the NHS the equivalent of 3 nurses pay. The extra work load on the remaining staff usually results in another member of staff going off sick due to stress as the other returns from sick. Sick leave is endemic within the public sector as a result.
This may be a controversial opinion but it has been going on for decades. I remember my mum complaining about it when she worked for the NHS 30 years ago.

Until it's not. I didn't take any time off sick in 10 years. Then needed emergency surgery with 6 weeks off. Except my wound became infected and I was off for 8 weeks in the end. Luckily I'm paid up to 6 months.

What you mean is that 10 days is fine for healthy people. It will be fine, right up until you get an illness that prevents you from working for a month or two. When that happens, good luck!

I’ve worked in private and public sector and both were 6 months full then 6 months half. DH works for Royal Mail and he gets the same.

@PikachuChickenRice A mixture over that time of medium and very large corporations ( including US companies), and a medium size not for profit, but I've not had to change roles for over ten years now, and I know I've been fortunate!

I get a month equivalent so about 22 days in a big multinational which I always try to use most of because they don’t ask for evidence. Add that to 35 days holiday and it’s very generous I think

Honestly, it isn’t “standard” for private sector. It depends totally on the industry and type of firm.

I am private sector and we are six months full pay, six months half pay, then income protection (50%). I have never worked anywhere with less than six months full pay, all private roles.

The only way I would touch something with only 10 days is if I had proper income protection in place, as my family is reliant on my salary.

But it does depend on sector.

You were self employed previously? What happened if you were sick? Who paid you?

I've only ever worked in one place that paid any sick pay. And that was up to the owners. Husband has never had any sick pay in his industry unless it's work related injuries. If he's Ill he has to go in or we get nothing until he's off a week then we get SSP which pays bugger all! I don't know anywhere where I live that pays any sick pay! Even getting SSP is a nightmare as our drs have a 3 week waiting list for appointments so by the time you're seen you're better.

Came here to say the same about income protection. Also agree with @Angrymum22 's post - I'm NHS and have been lucky enough not to need many sick days (entitled to 6 months full pay then 6 months half) but all that happens is you end up covering for the chancers that know how to work the system. They come back just before their full pay runs out, work just long enough to qualify again, and off they go again. I think I'd rather have a more generous salary that allowed me to pay income protection than lower pay and better 'benefits' (that don't necessarily benefit you as an individual)

So I guess it depends on the overall package - if the salary is higher than another comparable job that has better sick pay, you need to weigh that up.

It also doesn't have to be either or - company can offer free income protection as a benefit instead of sick pay. Certainly much cheaper.

One of the only two companies in many years of working and out of a number of companies, who ‘generously’ provided sick pay - wished and tried to discipline me after actually being in hospital in 2023 because of the whole ‘paid’ sick leave scenario. Prior to this I’d done 15 years excellent attendance record ruined in the blink of an eyelid. It really makes me bemused people think sick pay and not getting enough days is a concern.

Quite the relief now when I see SSP only quoted.

I eat 6 months full, 6 months 50% and then incapacity benefit kicks in.

Can't say I ever look at the number of sick days in T&C - the year I had covid aside, I rarely need more than a couple of days a year.

Like others, I get 6 months full pay and then 6 months half pay (I believe). But other than 2 weeks for a tonsillectomy in 2015 and 2 lots of Covid (2 days in 2021, then 3 days this time) haven’t taken sick leave. More so since able to work remotely - always self-inflicted pressure to log on.
It is though immensely reassuring to have the safety net in case I was long term sick. I think having a set number of days seems to be more of a thing in the US where I’ve read about people saving their sick days and carrying them over for things like boosting maternity paid time off. Which seems weird to me. Like others said - could see it as being used as extra time off without being ill.

My place is 3 months full 3 months half. It was 6 months full and 6 months half when I joined.

Sick pay is a safety net in very bad times

I get that, but what about micro businesses, those that manage to pay their staff but not much more-there are tens of thousands of buisness like that. How do they pay 6 months full?

I’m in Australia not the UK but I’m state public service and get 12 days a years. Ours accrue over the years and I now have six months of sick leave saved. Is this how it works in any UK workplaces?

Of course you still get the employees that treat it as extra annual leave and then have no sick leave when they are really sick or injured. At least they can’t just take 6 months with no consequences. That would be abused horribly by the usual crowd at most offices I’ve worked at (have worked in public service all my adult life).

This. I have yet to work for a company that doesn't just offer SSP

I get a minimum of 6 months full, 6 months half. It can be a years full pay though at their discretion eg Cancer type

I also have CI insurance with income protection.

I get six months full, six months half but with discretion for serious illness such as cancer etc.
However I work in the public sector and get paid considerably less for the responsibility I have compared with private sector (I've worked both). So it improves the package. Also I've had five days sick in the last five years. So ten days a year seems fine to me.
Given you've been self employed surely this situation isn't new?