Illness Benefit - claim if you're receiving payment for holidays due?

[Mr Dog]

Employee is not being paid by their employer while out on sick leave but can they still claim illness benefit if the employer agrees to pay the employee for a few days holidays due to them?

Also if employees starts to do a couple of hours work a week from home before returning to work full time can they still claim illness benefit??


Thanks

 

[gipimann]

Payment of holiday pay won't affect an illness benefit claim.

By claiming illness benefit, you (and your GP) are declaring that you are unfit for work - if you start back to work then you should not be claiming illness benefit.

If you have been on illness benefit for 6 months, you may be eligible for Partial Capacity Benefit, which allows certain people to work part-time and continue to receive a portion of their illness benefit or invalidity pension.

 

[Mr Dog]

Payment of holiday pay won't affect an illness benefit claim.

Why does illness benefit form ask you to confirm that you have not been paid for holiday pay since the first date of a claim? If it not going to affect the claim?

 

[gipimann]

Apologies, I should have been clearer in my post.

Receipt of money from an employer doesn't affect illness benefit payments, because it's not means-tested. For example a person may continue to be paid by their employer while out sick from work.

Regarding holiday pay, it's the dates you're paid for that are important. If you claim illness benefit, and you receive holiday pay for any day covered by the medical cert, that day is not counted as part of the claim and you won't be paid illness benefit for that day.

If the holiday pay was in respect of dates prior to your claim, they should not affect your claim.

From the guidelines on Illness Benefit:

Neither Sunday nor paid holiday leave are treated as a day of incapacity for work while any two periods of incapacity for work separated by a period of paid holiday leave are treated as one period of incapacity for work.