Government sick pay after serious injury

[Monkey5050]

Hi all, hoping someone can give me some advice as I’m just out of hospital with a back injury that is going to keep me off work for the foreseeable future as it’s looking like I’m going to require surgery to hopefully get back on my feet. I am currently signed off for 3 months but realistically this is just a starting point and 6-9 months is more realistically how long I will be off for, assuming everything goes well.

my situation is that I’m a plumber, I’ve been payee employed working approx 40 hour weeks for the same company for the past 18 months. My hours and shifts always varied and I am on a 0 hours contract hence no sick pay.

I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had the need to look to government support before so am completely clueless as to where to start. can anyone point me in the direction of which benefits I could be entitled to and roughly how much I could expect? Also I have no idea who to start speaking to about these.

there is one spanner in the works, after a break up approx 2 years ago I could not afford to keep living in my house so I rented it out and moved in with my dad. I use the surplus rent to pay off the loan I took out to give my ex her share of the equity.

many thanks and apologies for the long post.

Or citizens advice bureau, you could phone them for advice?

Thanks -no luck there by the looks of it. So I’ve had ongoing back pain that I’ve worked through for approx the past 6 months. Been waiting on the referral to a back pain clinic for the last 5 months… Eventually a couple of weeks ago while at home (typical) something just suddenly felt different though not particularly sore. Fast forward a few hours and my legs felt like they were on fire. I’m not a medical person but from the discharge form I’ve got bilateral compression of s1 nerve roots, a level 4 prolapse on l5s1 and some sort of hemangioma (sp) that could be problematic or could be nothing to worry about. They considered emergency operation but decided against it… fucking sore tbh.

Thanks :)

Thanks - I’d missed this one. I think this kind of confirms pip is out as there’s hopefully no chance I get assessed as guaranteed 12-15 months unable to work in any way…

If op's dad is receiving state pension he wouldn't get carers allowance anyway as they are overlapping benefits. Op would also need to be in receipt of standard daily living PIP for anyone to claim carers allowance for them.

Yes, thank you for clarifying that OP would need to have PIP first.

As for eligibility of his dad, it does depend on how much state pension
”If you get State PensionYou cannot get the full amount of both Carer’s Allowance and your State Pension at the same time.
If your pension is £76.75 a week or more, you will not get a Carer’s Allowance payment. If your pension is less than £76.75 a week, you’ll get a Carer’s Allowance payment to make up the difference.”

It’s assessed as the disability lasting at least 12 months. Whether you can work or not doesnt matter as you can be eligible for PIP and work.

cheers - I guess it’s worth going down the application process. In 3 months time I guess?

Even if you don't have a contract certain rules still apply. I would contact ACAS to go through this with them. Size of company does not determine if they pay SSP its the law.

Yeah he is…. Great to tackle every angle but that’s that one out.

If you were referred to the back pain clinic 5 months ago it might be worth putting in the PIP application now as you've already had the issue over 3 months (although not to this extent) and you're expecting it to be ongoing for around 9 months from now. I would get CAB to help complete the forms for it.

No, I’d apply now for PIP. You’ve had the disability for almost 6months and adding that to the projection puts you over 12months. They should have an estimate as to how long the wait list is for back surgery and then for recovery and post op physio.

Cheers but I don’t see the point taking up the fight when it appears new esa will pay the same after I’m assessed. ie appears to be essentially ssp but cutting out my employer, which is actually beneficial incase my employer goes fut. They’ve said they’ll give me the ssp1 form…..

Cheers. Will get cracking with the application tonight. Actually started with a chiropractor back in December - have all the receipts. Do you think that will count or just the first GP appointment?

Cheers - same question as above.

I'm curious about how your employer is going to give you a SSP-1 form if you meet the criteria for SSP? They can't just say 'We don't fancy paying SSP.' There has to be an actual reason why they can't pay SSP:

• You didn't earn more than £123 per week
• You've already receive 28 weeks worth of SSP and you haven't been back at work for more than 8 weeks after that
• You're not an employee

It sounds like you are an employee, you haven't received SSP before, and you did earn more than £123 per week because you worked full-time.

I would put that the problem started in December then, you don't need to be overly specific. I think the form just asks what treatment you've had and when so you can put chiropractor December, back pain clinic whatever date, surgery referral whatever date.

So I spoke to my boss earlier on and he said ‘it should be fine’. Maybe it’s not but from what I’d read :

To qualify for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) employees must:

• have an employment contract
• have done some work under their contract
• have been sick for 4 or more days in a row (including non-working days) - known as a ‘period of incapacity for work’
• earn an average of at least £123 per week
• give you notice and proof of illness when needed

the lack of employment contract seems to be what will allow him to do it.

You have a contract. It might not be in writing, but you've agreed what work you'll do, and you're getting paid for it. You've been getting pay slips and paying tax and national insurance, I take it?

Yup… I’m on the books propperly… payslips, holiday pay, they’ve even setup a pension and contribute to it.

Then you're an employee and they can't give you the SSP1 form because you're entitled to SSP.

OP, if you click the employment contract link in your message before last, and scroll to the bottom of the first page, you'll see this:

As soon as someone accepts a job offer they have a contract with their employer. An employment contract does not have to be written down.

If you're paye, you're employed. If you're employed, you have a contract.

Thanks everyone - really appreciate all the help and advice. Thinking this gives me the way to handle it with my boss… if he can’t give me an ssp1 he’ll have to put me onto statutory - without me having to push it.