NHS sick pay after long period of sick leave

[Starface]

I wonder if anyone can help.

I had a year of sick leave from employment in the NHS for cancer treatment (less a few weeks). Part of my operation had to be cancelled due to increased restrictions on surgery. I am now able to go ahead with that surgery. It will be about 2 months off, and will take place about 6 months after I returned to work.

Does anyone know how the sick pay works? The policy says it's based on what I took in the last 12 months. So if 6 months of those was sick pay at half pay, followed by 6 months of being in work, would the 2 months off be at half pay too, or full pay? I can shift the timing of the surgery slightly to suit me (ie to get best sick pay), but I am a bit reluctant to ask about this at work.

If anyone has any ideas please help. Cancer has made us poor enough as it is, even with a good sick package. If I can avoid being another few thousand down I will be so happy.

I think it will be half pay.

I think you have to have a full 12 months in work after sick leave before it resets.

Sorry you’ve had a rough time. Money worries are the last thing you need

I thought it was on a rolling 12 month basis, you’ll have to check your local HR policy on the intranet.

You could go straight to HR and ask, you don’t have to ask your line manager. You also don’t need to mention you can delay it. Just say you know you’ll be having surgery at some point and want to be able to plan financially.

I did look at the policy, but honestly I didn't understand it. I know I will get some sick pay, I just can't figure out if it will be full or half pay.

I will just ask if no one here can tell me.

Apologies I can’t answer the question, but what I would say is that there is a clause in section 14.13 of the agenda for change terms and conditions service that states that employers has discretion to extend the periods of sick pay “in any other circumstance the employer deems reasonable”. Given that had it not been for covid you would have had the op in your previous period of sick leave I would say you’ve got a good case to ask for full pay. Hate to say it but in my experience it depends how well liked/respected by your manager you are.

Yes that's very helpful. Thank you.

If you have worked for a certain amount of years in the NHS, you get first 6 months full pay and then 6 months half pay. If you only used 2 months of your full pay, you would get another 4 months full pay before going to half pay I would have thought. If you're NHS trust had an intranet, just look up the health and well-being policy.

Thanks for responding @vdbfamily

No I previously used just under 12 months of sick pay. I will be back at work for 6 months or so, then I have more surgery requiring 2 months off. I want to know whether this will be at full or half pay.

However having searched this to death, I think it will be at half pay plus stat sick pay. I think what they do is, on the first day of sick leave, look at the last 12 months. Then any sick leave you already took is subtracted from what your allowance would be (so mine is 12 months sick pay based on length of service, so after 6 months back in work would be 12-6 = 6, so I would get pay as if I had already taken 6 months of sick pay, so will be at half pay).

I will update once I know this for certain.

Was it a full year off with no return in that time frame?

If so my understanding of it each period you are off sick gets reset on your return.

So I went of sick in February 2019 returning august 2019. However, my understanding of it was that it wasn’t until August 2020 that I got my sick leave back. I did have a couple of days from a sick bug that came back around December 2019.