NHS Sick Pay question.

[Olivia199]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone can shed some light on how this works.

I am currently off sick, initially for hyperemeisis but sadly now while I sort management of a MMC.

Just looking at my sick pay entitlement so I don't get a shock next payday.

Until this month, I have been in year three of continuous service. So I am entitled to four months full pay.

Unfortunately due to a hospital admission earlier in the year with pneumonia, and a period of absence due to Covid, I have used (including total time I'm taking for this current episode) 14 weeks.

I'm aware that still gives me two weeks of pay but it sparked a question.

In August, so now, is when I hit another year of service. So now I'm in year 4 of service. Meaning I'd get 5 months full pay. But how exactly does that work? Do I just get the extra month as of now? So I'd be left with 6 weeks remaining?

I think sickness is rolling so once my first sickness date has been passed by a year, that time no longer counts towards pay, but never considered how it works with the addition of another year's service.

Obviously I'm absolutely not planning to go off sick again, especially as the first episode is almost a year ago anyway, but it's niggling at me that I don't understand how it works.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You usually get a letter 4 weeks before you drop down to half pay, so my bet is you still have 6 weeks of full pay left.

Thank you - sadly I don't think I would.
When I joined the Trust, they got my date of continuous service wrong on ESR, stating only two months, so all of a sudden I was shocked with a month of half pay. Thankfully all sorted but no such letter in the 4 weeks before!

Ah I see. If you have 4 full years of completed service by the end of August, surely that’s another month of full pay? Maybe call payroll?

Yeah I should imagine so. I've never had to think about sick pay before! I've had a break in service when I went off to Uni but previously had enough years that I stopped getting that increase.
I've been dreading the payroll phonecall but you're probably right... thanks!

I’m CS rather than NHS and I would expect you to get the extra month on your anniversary.

i think the extra sickness entitlement only takes effect once you are back at work, so if you are already off sick, your current entitlement applies.

.... to add.

i was told this by a Payroll Manager (local government, but similar scheme).

Also, i wouldn't rely on them telling you when you are going into half pay. i've worked with many payroll depts over the years and they've all said that they do try and notify staff out of courtesy, but it's not a requirement as sick pay entitlements are in contracts.

if you want to know, i'd give them a call.

Hey,
Normally how it works with sick pay is you need to return back to work for new sick pay.
We work that if a persons sick pay renews when off sick they must come back to work for 4 weeks before they can use the sick again

I work for nhs also and when I was off with covid related sickness it didn't count as normal sick leave provisions. Apparently this is still the case according to colleagues who are off with covid currently so you might have another few weeks full pay if the covid related absence isn't counted

Thank you all for your insights!

@CarolHath - That's interesting. I was aware it didn't use to count towards sickness tiers and episodes etc, but always thought it counted towards sick pay. It now also counts as normal sickness that is included in review in my trust, despite still being asked to test and stay home if we are positive, irregardless of symptoms.

Thankfully I've got enough paid sick leave left to cover this absence even if I do only get the allowance for being in my fourth year, rather than fifth. I'll pop payroll and email and ask them to let me know when I'm back, more as a point of wanting to know out of curiosity!

Ah in our trust we are still asked to test and advised to stay home for 5 days and only allowed back with a negative test. I'm in NI. It's crazy how every Trust is so different. We didn't even realise until last week when most of the team came down with covid. We are a community team.
Hope you got sorted and sorry about your loss

@CarolHath - Yeah it's the same at my trust, you're asked to test and stay home for 5 days and yet sickness is now counted against you. Which I know irritated my colleague who had a fever and felt rough on day one, was asked to test and came back positive, felt absolutely fine for the rest of the week that she was told to stay home but got that sickness counted against her. I was fairly poorly with covid so I figured I'd have been off either way.

I suppose it's the same as anything, I was told I wasn't allowed to work when I had hand, foot and mouth. But in reality I didn't feel poorly enough to actually call in sick. So that absence being counted against me stung!

Thank you, I appreciate that.