Sick Pay help please.

shopaholicsan

My daughter has been working for her employer for 5 months. She has been off sick for the last week but despite her asking her employer if she will get paid still hasn't had an answer. Today her doctor advised her to take another week off and gave her a sick note. She is worried that she will not get paid by her employer and is talking about going back into work despite feeling very unwell because she has a child and cannot manage financially. She has tonsillitis and a bad mouth infection and since she works with food I don't think she would be allowed to work even if she felt up to it.
She hasn't been given a contract so can't check what it says about sick pay. I thought naively that all employers these days paid normal wages but obviously this is not always the case.
Assuming her employer does not pay her a wage (she believes this to be the case) what can she do? She gets tax credits but is paid weekly and all her monthly bills are due next week.
Any advice gratefully received.

Daisies

She should be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) whatever the employer does.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/statutory_sick_pay.asp

CFC

Hi Shopaholic, it is very far from usually the case that people will get their wages automatically paid by their employer in the case of illness. It will very much depend on where she works.

Often the employer will pay nothing until the new worker has passed their probation, sometimes sick pay is accrued at the rate of one week for every year's service, and sometimes, sadly, there is none at all.

Daisies is correct. She will get statutory sick pay, but she needs to send in the doctor's note. I would then suggest she rings up to make sure that work has received it. She should also ask for a copy of her contract to be sent to her while she's at it....

shopaholicsan

Thanks guys, she spoke to her employer again and will be paid SSP.