The Way In Which Some People Abuse The Benefit Of Sick Pay

If you have an annual income of around £21,000, you will be entitled to receive statutory sick pay from your employer for an initial 26 weeks. This pay will be at a rate of £88 per week. What some workers don't know is that they are not entitled to this benefit unless they have been off work for four weeks or more.

The way in which some people abuse the benefit of sick pay can vary depending on the severity of their illness and how long they intend to go without returning to work.

The most common form of abuse is going to work while ill. With the help of a few simple tricks, they can still manage to pull this off with relative ease.

Some people have a persistent cough or runny nose that they can get rid of by using some Vicks® vapour rub and good timing. The smell of Vicks® will mask their body odour and their sniffles might be drowned out by the sound of them opening tins or clanking around in the kitchen cupboard for ingredients. Not only do they get paid for doing this, but if they're doing it at home, nobody will find out until bedtime when the whole family has eaten their tea.

Most people's immediate response to finding out that a friend is ill is to tell them to take some time off. However, with a bit of cunning and a good cover story, a person could convince their friends that they can't go into work due to their illness.

If you have the following symptoms, you should expect sympathy from your friends:

A sore throat

Coughing fits or coughing up phlegm

Runny nose (watery eyes also bring some sympathy)

Sore muscles / aches and pains

Headaches / migraines / dizziness (the big one!)

  If your symptoms are bad enough, it may be worth explaining them in great detail. This is especially handy if you have a sore throat as it will be much more believable if you can describe the pain in detail. If you make sure that your friends understand exactly how ill you're feeling and they don't think that your symptoms are manageable, they might just try to convince you to take some time off work.

  Another handy golden rule of thumb to remember is: "If in doubt, keep your mouth shut".

If at any time in the future, there's a possibility that someone with a grudge against you may be tempted to tell your employer how ill you really were on the day or days in question – make sure that this person doesn't know anything about your condition. If you're ever confronted with this situation, it's worth considering the following options:

  Send a doctor's excuse by text or an email to your employer. Although this could get back to them and be used against you in court, it's a good way of making friends and providing them with some plausible defence.

Simply stick to the story that you really were ill at the time, but didn't want to take any time off. Hopefully they will believe you as they're bound to want their employee back on the job.

You don't have to go to work if you feel well enough. However, if there's a risk that you may get ill again, it's worth considering going in for a check-up. It's not very convincing when someone turns up for work with a sick note and tells their employer that they're feeling so much better that they wanted to go in anyway. It makes more sense if you just tell your employer that your health has improved.

Be up-front on the day or days in question and let your employer know of any changes in symptoms before they happen – this will save them having to hunt down the reason behind the meeting at lunchtime and make them feel more sympathetic towards you.

If you can confidently tell your employer that your condition is manageable and there's no risk of you getting ill, then it makes sense to take a day off here or there and feel better for it.

  There's no point going into work when what you really need is rest. Ask yourself if you would be performing to a high standard. If not, the right thing to do is let the team down gently by telling them that you're unwell and taking some time off work. If there's something specific that you need to get done and your illness makes this more difficult, then go in to work and try to be as efficient as possible until you're well enough to return.

If you're still not sure whether it's best for you to go into work, ask your employer if there are any ailments that are covered by a medical certificate. If for example, you have a sore shoulder or knee that happens once every other month, a medical certificate may be the best way of going about it.

If you have reached this point in the article, I applaud you! Congratulations on reading all the way down – few people can do so without feeling rather invigorated.

Here are some questions to put your mind at rest:

What do you think of my advice?

  What would you do if you were in my shoes?

  What's your opinion of some workers who abuse the benefit of sick pay?

  How do you feel about people going into work while ill?

If you cannot wait to leave a comment, then please email me at  stockley2014@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks for reading!  If it has not already been made abundantly clear by the tone of my writing, I'm not a fan of people abusing the benefit of sick pay and I apologise for sounding so bitter about it. Hopefully, if you're planning on going into work with a cold or flu, you will at least consider the consequences of your actions before you do so. 

If you find my advice useful, then please share this article with your friends. If it's not useful and you still somehow managed to get all the way down here, check out my other articles! I hope that they entertain and inform like this one has! 

Thanks again for reading!  Until next time...STAY WELL! Stockley Reply Delete

Another good article thanks.

Conclusion: You can do what you want. But you can't do what you want. Reply Delete

You're not a fan of people abusing sick pay, but you're happy for people to go into work when they're ill? I'm not a fan of someone who is ill going out to work either - I don't think its safe for them, their customers or the company. Surely in your line of work, if someone was ill and went out to work, it could put others at risk (infection)? Reply Delete

I should clarify that whilst I'm generally against people going into work when they are ill, there are many cases in which it's important for people to go out to work.