When filling in a self certifiate sickness form

[giraffescantdancethetango]

link to form

When it says "date sickness began" is that the first day you were off sick? Or the first day you were ill. I started to get ill on Friday 20th but that week my work patterns were -

Thur - on hol from work
Fri - dont work anyway
Sat - ditto
Sun - ditto
Mon - on hol from work
Tue - first day of sick leave
Wed - 2nd day of sick leave
Thur - 3rd day of sick leave

So do I put down Fri because thats the first day I started to become unwell (only mildly, got much worse) or Tuesday because thats the day I was first off work?

When did you inform your employer you weren't well enough to go into work?? If you put down from the Friday they may count it from then. I'd personally go withthe Tuesday.

Look at it this way if you'd been sick Fri Sat Sun & Mon and well enough to go into work on the Tues your employeer would not need to be told you weren#t well - so why put it on this sick line???

You should legally complete the form using the actual dates you were sick, even if they are days you do not normally work.

Are you claiming SSP? If so, this can only be claimed from fourth day of sickness, therefore you would be jeapordising your claim if you claim to have only been sick from Tuesday 24th, especially if your illness lasts for any longer.

Your company won't mark you as sick for the Friday if that was a day you don't normally work.

I understand what you're saying Living, however not all employers are the same. i was a civil servant and they used the Bradford Factor to calculate your sick rates. If you scored above 90 you were given a warning. They calculated the number of days sick multiplied by the number of occassions squared. Eg 10 days over 3 occassions = 10 x (3x3) = 90 you'd get a formal warning! So because they counted your 'days off' also as sick days in doing this calculation we used to not tell our managers we were sick on days off in order to keep this calculation thing low.

That form certainly isn't clear is it? If you take it literally, then you should put the Friday, but it seems to be a form used for the purposes of calculating entitlement to SSP, which obviously doesn't apply. I'd ask your HR department, payroll or whoever deals with it to advise you what you should put.

I'm a nanny and they do all that themselves (some nanny employers get nannytax etc to do it) but will email thanks.