Universal Credit when you are sick: sick pay, fit notes and the assessment

Statutory Sick Pay comes from your employer. Universal Credit comes from DWP. They are separate systems that overlap, and you can be paid both at once. SSP is paid for up to 28 weeks if you are classed as an employee, have done some work for that employer and have been ill for at least one full working day. It is a flat weekly amount, or a share of your normal weekly earnings if that is lower, and tax and National Insurance come off it. Universal Credit treats SSP as earnings, in the same way as wages, so above your work allowance it reduces the award by 55p in the pound. Sick pay does not sit beside a Universal Credit award untouched. It is tapered like any other pay.

A fit note, still widely called a sick note, is the evidence that your health affects your capability to work. For Universal Credit you need one once your condition has affected that capability for longer than seven days. For SSP the trigger is the same length: more than seven days off in a row, counting the days you would not have worked. It does not have to come from a GP. A hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist can all issue one, and it can be printed or digital. You report the details in your online account rather than posting the note itself. When it expires you need a new one if your health still restricts what you can do, and you will get a reminder telling you the date to report by.

Reporting a health condition changes what your claimant commitment asks of you rather than suspending it. Your work coach can reduce or lift work-search requirements while you are unwell, and the commitment is reviewed whenever your circumstances change. You may still be asked to phone your work coach to talk about what you are able to do. If you become too ill to work, or too ill to attend an appointment, report it straight away in your online account: a missed appointment without a reason that is accepted as good is what leads to a sanction, and being unwell only counts as a good reason if DWP has been told. Nothing on the health route stops you working if you feel able to, at any point, including after an assessment finds limited capability for work.

If your condition affects your capability to work for longer than 28 days, you may be referred for a Work Capability Assessment. Keep providing fit notes until the decision arrives, even after the referral is made, because the fit notes are what hold your position open in the meantime. You may not be referred at all if your earnings are above a set monthly threshold. The assessment looks at what you can do rather than at your diagnosis, and its audio is recorded unless you tell the health assessment provider that you do not want that. It produces one of four outcomes: fit for work, limited capability for work, limited capability for work and work-related activity, or that last outcome with a severe lifelong condition recorded alongside it.

Fit for work means the ordinary claimant commitment resumes and you look for work that suits your condition. You keep the standard allowance, get no health element, and need no further fit notes unless your health worsens or a new condition starts. Limited capability for work means you prepare for work rather than search for it, and you stop needing fit notes. Limited capability for work and work-related activity means neither searching nor preparing, no further fit notes, and the health element added to the award: £429.80 a month at the higher rate, which is protected for people already receiving it or who declared the condition before 6 April 2026, and £217.26 a month at the lower rate for everyone else. Reassessment comes by letter, and starting work does not on its own trigger one.