No sick pay

A question about : No sick pay

Hi

I have a longstanding health condition (depression & anxiety), which means I have exceeded the 3 month limit of sick days I can have off at work with pay. I've had quite a bit of time off in Jan and Feb this year, and because I'm now not getting paid for those days, I've been told I'm only going to get around Ј50 paid this week for this month's pay (when it's normally around 1300!)

I'm back at work now and hopefully shouldn't have to have any more time off so will get paid in full at the end of March, but I don't know what I am going to do for this month! I can't borrow off family as they are skint. I have loans to pay out and obvious general living expenses.

What can I do??? Are there benefits I can claim??? I'd need them pretty quickly though! What do people do in this situation???

Thanks!

Best answers:

• have you ran out of S.S.P.?
  If you have your employer should of given you a letter, which you used to be able to give to esa to cover the lost days, been a while i may be wrong.
  Bit tight of employers but i guess within their rights, had similar with mine last month, they have a habit of building up my sick and taking huge chunks out of my wage rather than, if i have 5 days off one month deduct 5 days, they saved up about 2 weeks worth over a course of 3 months and took it all out, no notice just did it, then didn't pay enough ssp, i queried this, they said they would give me the missing ssp next time (they have online wage slip says so) but i could of done with their accuracy last month when they took the chunk out,
  Good luck, i think you'll need it
• Yeah, I've ran out of the amount of time (3 months or whatever it is) that they will pay sick pay, if that's what you mean by running out of SSP. So they should have given me a form? Do you have a link to anywhere where it explains this online that I could point them to by any chance? I can't seem to find anything. Thank you v. much for the reply though! And yeah, it seems they've done the same with me... taken it all out of one paycheque as a big chunk!
• It sounds as though you have reached the limit of contractual sick pay (ie. sick days that your company is willing to continue to pay your normal salary), but you should be eligible for 28 weeks of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). This is taxable income, and currently around Ј87 p/w.
  More info here:
  https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/overview
• Your employer should complete a Form SSP1
  SSP1 Form
  *edit* sorry, I think I may have misunderstood. I thought you'd come to the end of SSP.
• no you get work sick pay, and when that runs out you have ssp (see link)
  https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/overview
  You can get Ј87.55 per week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if you’re too ill to work. It’s paid by your employer for up to 28 weeks.
  You need to qualify for SSP and have been off work sick for 4 or more days in a row (including non-working days).
  You can’t get less than the statutory amount. You can get more if your company has a sick pay scheme (or ‘occupational scheme’) - check your employment contract.
  so it might be worth speaking to your payroll and see what you are on, because if its just work sick pay, they should of put you on ssp, you dont need to fill out any forms for that, but once that runs out, i think you could claim esa whilst sick until fit to return to work.
• SSP lasts for 28 weeks where company sick pay can be anything from 14 days up to 6 months. Your pay slip will tell you if you have been paid SSP
• wow 14 days, i only get 8, maybe because i am pro rata due to only managing part time.
  having MS, OA as main issues, you can see how mine dont last
• I have had a lot of time off (in excess of 3 months in total I'm pretty sure since I started there in Oct 2012), so I think it might be that my SSP has ran out? If that's the case what do I do? Is that when I need to get that form, SSP1 from them to claim ESA? If so what's the turnaround time for getting ESA? Because obviously I need it pretty quickly... surely this happens to other people???
• If it was SSP your employer should of written to you to tell you what date it was going to run out on, they have to, because esa wont take your word for it, they will want that letter.
  Check your wage slip because it has to show if it is ssp you are on.
• Yours is quite a difficult situation because you may have periods of sickness which may have been linked together as regards your Statutory Sick Pay. Statutory sick pay is paid as part of the contractual sick pay and then up to when 28 weeks have been reached. So basically you are entitled to 28 weeks of statutory sick in total.
  Confusing isn't it?
  You need to speak to your payroll officer and ask them to explain if you have reached the end of your statutory sick pay. If you have, then they need to give you a SSP1 form to give to the Job Centre so that you can claim Employment Support Allowance. The form tells the Job Centre why the employer is not paying/no longer paying Statutory Sick Pay. It can be downloaded on line.
  Once you have the form you can claim ESA. There are 7 'waiting days' that you will not be paid for. Google on how to claim. The claim can be backdated for 3 months so ask for this.
  Since it is all very complicated to put it more simply:
  Speak to payroll and ask why you are not being paid Statutory Sick Pay.
  If no longer entitled to SSP then download a form SSP1 and get employer to complete
  Claim ESA (google for contact details) Ask for it to be backdated to when you stopped receiving SSP.
  In the meantime
  Call your creditors and tell them you have been off sick and ask for time to pay/make an arrangement for any arrears. Do not ignore. They will most likely be happy to help but will soon send nasty letters if you don't contact them.
  Ask employer for an advance of wages to cover food/any other necessity.
  Contact landlord/council if any problem with not paying rent/council tax.
  This is a blip for a short time so don't panic.
  Just get your sick pay/ESA sorted and let everyone know what is happening.
• I'm sorry to hear about your circumstances. I know how tough depression can get and it doesn't help when you have money worries on top of that. I don't have an answer about benefits but I'd like to reiterate what pmlindyloo said about contacting creditors. I've made the mistake of sticking my head in the sand many times and when I finally pull it out and contact them they're usually pretty good about coming to an agreement with regards to repaying arrears or taking a payment break. Try not to stress about it, pay what absolutely must be paid as a priority, such as food and heating bills then prioritise the rest.
  I hope things improve soon.