What rights do I have to payment during sickness?

This depends on what is in your contract of employment. Sometimes contracts have an express term providing for full pay for a specified period, followed by reduced pay for a further period, subject to conditions on reporting the sickness absence. If the contract does not contain any such provision the courts could, in some circumstances, imply a term giving a contractual right to sick pay. Otherwise your employer is required to pay sick pay under the statutory scheme. This is called 'statutory sick pay' (SSP) and is payable, subject to qualifying conditions under the national insurance contributions scheme, for up to 28 weeks. In any event, employees must be told what the sick pay arrangements are as part of the written statement of employment particulars.

If you don’t have contractual sick pay entitlement and don’t qualify for SSP, you may be able to claim income support or incapacity benefit. For further information on these visit www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk