How does Statutory Sick Pay Affect Illness Benefit & Occupational Sick Pay?

If you qualify for both Statutory Sick Leave and Illness Benefit, and your first instance of illness in 2024 exceeds your 5-day Statutory Sick Leave entitlement, your Illness or Injury Benefit payment will start from day 6. You cannot be in receipt of Illness or Injury Benefit on days you receive Statutory Sick Leave.

If your instance of illness does not exceed your 5-day Statutory Sick Leave entitlement, there is no requirement to apply for Illness Benefit.

However, even if you are unfit for work for three days or less you can still register a claim for Injury Benefit as evidence that an occupational accident occurred. This safeguards your future rights to benefit under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme because an illness or disablement can develop at a later date.

If you have used up your 5-day Statutory Sick Leave entitlement in 2024 and if you have any subsequent instances of illness within the calendar year, payments of Illness Benefit or Injury Benefit will start on day 4 of your illness which is after the normal 3 waiting days.

Statutory Sick Pay and Occupational Sick Pay

Under the Sick Leave Act 2022 employers can run a sick leave scheme which is better for employees than Statutory Sick Leave.

A few factors are considered in deciding if an employer’s sick leave scheme is better than Statutory Sick Leave. They include duration and rate of payment. These employer schemes are not paid in addition to Statutory Sick Leave.

Social Welfare legislation states that Statutory Sick Leave employees and employees covered by better schemes are treated the same in terms of the effect on their Illness Benefit and Injury Benefit entitlements.

Illness Benefit and Injury Benefit are not payable where the person is receiving either:

  • payment for Statutory Sick Leave

or

  • payment on their employer’s scheme, which is exempt from Statutory Sick Leave because it offers better terms (up to 5 days)

Since 1 January 2024 Illness Benefit and Injury Benefit are paid from day 6 of the claim if you have not used any of your entitlement prior to this instance of illness.

Days 1-3 are covered by Illness Benefit or Injury Benefit ‘waiting days’ and the first 3 Statutory Sick Leave (or equivalent recognition of the more favourable employer scheme).

Days 4 and 5 are covered by the remainder of the 5 days statutory sick leave (or equivalent recognition of the more favourable employer scheme).

If you have used some of your entitlement prior to this instance of illness, you may receive payment from an earlier date. See examples below for reference.

Any claims made after the exhaustion of the Statutory Sick Leave/the employer equivalent will only serve the 3 waiting days.

All of these scenarios can be confusing even for experienced payroll professional so we created a simple to use calculator to help PAYE workers establish what their entitlements are from the different schemes.

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