Sick Note Extension

rasmat

Can a doctor give out a sick note before previous sick note has expired?

NASA_2

Depends on the doctor. Some are happy enough to do it while others arent.

I work in ESA (For my !!!!ing sins) and had advised people to get sick lines which overlap if the doctor allows them. It just helps prevent payments being held up when its really nobodys fault.

ali_p_4

Overlapping sick notes can in itself cause problems for the claiming party. I was receiving ib last year I had 3 sick notes in total 1 for 1 week 4 days due to the end date entered. I had problems and it become obvious that i would not be in a position to return to work on that date so i returned to my gp as he had previously suggested.It was more convenient to see him a few days before that first note expired. I was given 4 weeks on that occasion. I had to have a further one for 8 weeks which was by his reckoning intended to take me to the end of october. 13 1/2 weeks in total. I had ib paid until 28th oct but the system had me as being qualified until the 22nd. I started a new job when the 28th came and was eligible for return to work credit due to the length of time elapsing. That was initially refused because i was apparently 2 days short of the 13 weeks. The problem had occurred because of the overlap in the sick notes I was told. The dates of the sick notes were entered as oppose to length of time carrying on from previous duration.

NASA_2

ali_p wrote: »

Overlapping sick notes can in itself cause problems for the claiming party. I was receiving ib last year I had 3 sick notes in total 1 for 1 week 4 days due to the end date entered. I had problems and it become obvious that i would not be in a position to return to work on that date so i returned to my gp as he had previously suggested.It was more convenient to see him a few days before that first note expired. I was given 4 weeks on that occasion. I had to have a further one for 8 weeks which was by his reckoning intended to take me to the end of october. 13 1/2 weeks in total. I had ib paid until 28th oct but the system had me as being qualified until the 22nd. I started a new job when the 28th came and was eligible for return to work credit due to the length of time elapsing. That was initially refused because i was apparently 2 days short of the 13 weeks. The problem had occurred because of the overlap in the sick notes I was told. The dates of the sick notes were entered as oppose to length of time carrying on from previous duration.

Well, that stands to reason, notes are taken from the date of signing or from a date in the past. Sick lines cannot be post-dated. If they could it would be like the doctor saying 'I examined you in three days time and have decided you should refrain from work.'

stazi

There is nothing to prevent a GP from issuing a sick note before the prevoius one expires. However, JCP will only use the period of the latest sick note.

ali_p_4

ESA wrote: »

Well, that stands to reason, notes are taken from the date of signing or from a date in the past. Sick lines cannot be post-dated. If they could it would be like the doctor saying 'I examined you in three days time and have decided you should refrain from work.'

but that is exactly it on a visit to gp it was blatently obvious that no way on gods earth would i be able to return to work in 3 days time therefore a further paper was issued to continue. My query is then why did one part of the system say i was eligible until a certain date but i had already been paid up until the correct end of my sick notes.. a duplicate sick note resolved the matter. a duplicate stated 23rd -26th inclusive but 25th was still entered as amended date.

NASA_2

ali_p wrote: »

but that is exactly it on a visit to gp it was blatently obvious that no way on gods earth would i be able to return to work in 3 days time therefore a further paper was issued to continue. My query is then why did one part of the system say i was eligible until a certain date but i had already been paid up until the correct end of my sick notes.. a duplicate sick note resolved the matter. a duplicate stated 23rd -26th inclusive but 25th was still entered as amended date.

I dont fully understand what you are saying here but I will try to put what I said previously into better language.

Say a sickline runs to the 26th of February. Claimant wants to make sure no interruption in payment so goes to doctor on 23rd and gets a sickline for 4 weeks. The effective date of that sickline is the 23rd of February and will run out on the 22nd of March. The fact that the previous one still had time to run is irrelevant.

As for what happened in your particular case, No idea, I would have to have access to the claim details to work that out.

ali_p_4

ESA wrote: »

I dont fully understand what you are saying here but I will try to put what I said previously into better language.

Say a sickline runs to the 26th of February. Claimant wants to make sure no interruption in payment so goes to doctor on 23rd and gets a sickline for 4 weeks. The effective date of that sickline is the 23rd of February and will run out on the 22nd of March. The fact that the previous one still had time to run is irrelevant.

As for what happened in your particular case, No idea, I would have to have access to the claim details to work that out.

I understand what you are saying and was made aware of that at the time. I am not having a go just that when i was in the situation it was a real mess up and didn't help my state of health. I had never been in that position before so it was all a learning curve for me. But i came across so many discrepances which made me wonder how you guys can ever make the system work. The top and bottomn of it was my sick papers were intended to last me until the end of the month as was my ib paid all correct. But because of this overlap the actual date on the system was almost a week short. when i sent a duplicate paper in to cover the difference in end dates my gp put 23rd-26th inclusive. But when i went through querying my return to work benefit the date was 25th. So much contradiction of what should have been black and white. Am I glad it's all over:rotfl: Talk about stress levels that's what i meant about one big mess. Even the ladies at jcp were tearing their hair out they couldn't believe the hiccups. They were absolute gems.

elaina79

If your condition means you still cannot work then yes they can. They will date it from the day after the previous one expires though so there is no overlap.

ali_p_4

elaina79 wrote: »

If your condition means you still cannot work then yes they can. They will date it from the day after the previous one expires though so there is no overlap.

It is unfortunate though that you are not always aware of these things until you have had experience with the problems. Not even sure gp's are aware as mine ,an extremely good one, actually sat with a calender to work out how many weekss were required until the end of the month to make things better for me. It is forums like this that highlight the issues as i was trying to do to prevent more people from experiencing the problems i had.