Signed off at 22 weeks

[Lss2024]

Hi
I am 22+3 with a 14 month old. I was off work last week with PGP. I work in an office and sitting in the chair all day was making it so much worse. I was due in today but going to get a sick note from the doctors as I’m feeling a lot of pain.

Has anyone been signed off this early? I work in the NHS and get sick pay so don’t think it’ll affect my mat pay. Just feeling quite guilty really that I’m off.

It is worth checking as I believe if you are signed off sick this can cause your maternity leave to start a bit earlier than you had planned.

If it's pregnancy related (which it is in your case), they will most likely just bring forward your maternity leave. This is how it is in my workplace and I believe in most public sector jobs, but do check.

Most workplaces won't allow you to go off sick due to the pregnancy and then have your full planned maternity leave on top of that.

Have you had an occupational health assessment? I have a similar issue with PGP and sitting and they have got me a special cushion which helps a lot.

Agree that it’s best to check the maternity policy as pregnancy related sickness can trigger maternity leave. Also to check when the qualifying weeks used to calculate maternity pay (I’m NHS but not at work today so can’t check) but lower rate sickness pay might have a knock on depending on the qualifying weeks

Be careful with what you do at this point.

Going off on sick will trigger your maternity leave to start, and its really early. Best thing you can possibly do is speak to your manager regarding it, see what support they can give you, see if they can refer you to occy health because they may be able to pin point more support in order for you to be at work.

Is it possible for you to work from home or is this not something you can do in your job?

Definitely look at all of your options before taking more sick leave! X

Matt leave can only be triggered 4 weeks before due date if off due to sickness

Are there other options? Wfh? A different chair? Standing desk? Have you had a OH assessment? I would be surprised if you could go on sick leave until maternity leave kicks in I would thought your maternity would be brought forward.

The above advice is wrong.

Maternity leave will be triggered if you take pregnancy related sick leave in the last 4 weeks of pregnancy (36+ weeks).

Maternity pay is calculated on weeks 17-25 but if you get full sick pay it won't affect your maternity pay. If you are on half pay or no pay, it will reduce your maternity pay.

Have you done everything to investigate different working conditions. Standing desk, different chair, silly bouncy ball thing but some people find it gives a lot of benefits, working half days, working from home etc….

If none of those are possible and you are in pain then yes you can go off sick. But as others have said your maternity will start early.

If you stay signed off with pgp your maternity leave will kick in early. I think around 36 weeks but worth checking NHS policy.

I wouldnt feel guilty, its a very small portion of your working life and if you know you absolutely cant work its the right thing to do for you and your baby.

I would advise checking any implications of doing so though, you should be okay for your qualifying week calculations, but if you remain signed off now until maternity leave they will trigger it a few weeks early. Is there zero scope for reduced hours, WFH etc? Admittedly this was private sector at the time, but I worked reduced hours for full pay (I guess it was preferable to get some work out of me for the money) and it was good for my own sanity and also meant I started mat leave when I wanted rather than a few weeks early.

Unless you get full pay when off sick, try to stick it out until you turn 25 weeks, or you may find you don't qualify for any maternity pay (or significantly less).

Can you instead get a list of adjustments from the GP - e.g. be able to walk around after X amount of time set down or standing desk or something to try help get you through?