Do I Get Full Pay If Injured At Work?

By Max Morris. Last Updated 21st June 2022. In this guide, we’ll look at whether you could get full pay if you’re injured at work. All employers have a responsibility to uphold the duty of care they owe you. For that reason, if they breach their duty of care causing you to suffer harm, you may be able to make an accident at work claim.

Do I get full pay if I'm injured at work?

A guide exploring if you get full pay if injured at work

However, there are many factors to consider when looking at whether you will receive full pay. This will usually depend on the policy your company has on sick pay. We’ll explore this further in our guide.

We’ll also look at whether you could recover any loss of earnings when making a personal injury claim.

Here at Public Interest Lawyers, we can offer advice on your potential legal options if you’re injured at work in an accident that wasn’t your fault. If you have any questions after reading, please get in touch with our team using the details below:

Telephone: 0800 408 7825
Online form: Fill out the contact form with your query.
Live chat: Chat with an advisor using the live chat function below.

Select A Section:

If I Get Injured at Work, Do I Get Paid and If Not, Can I Claim It Back?
Does Your Employer Have To Give You Work-Related Injury Sick Pay in the UK?
What Is Statutory Sick Pay And When Could You Claim It?
Can Employers Ask You To Work When Off Sick?
Can I Be Sacked For Having An Accident At Work?
What Should You Do If You Don’t Get Full Pay If Injured At Work?
What Could You Claim If Injured At Work?
Talk To A No Win No Fee Work Injury Claim Lawyer
Do I Get Full Pay If Injured At Work – Read Our Related Guides

If I Get Injured at Work, Do I Get Paid and If Not, Can I Claim It Back?

If you suffered an injury at work, you may be wondering if you’re entitled to full sick pay. This depends on several factors – one of which is the nature of your employment contract. Your contract may stipulate that you’re entitled to a particular amount of paid sick days. However, if your injury causes long-term issues and you’re unable to work while you fully recover, you may not receive full sick pay for the whole time you’re off if this is not set out in your contract.

However, you may be able to claim compensation if your injuries were caused by employer negligence. You could also be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks if you meet the required criteria. This can provide you with some form of financial relief in the form of sick pay for a work-related injury.

If your injury was caused by employer negligence and you’re unable to get full sick pay, you may be able to claim for loss of earnings. Contact us to discuss claiming for an injury at work using the details above. Alternatively, please read on to learn more about the claims process.

Does Your Employer Have To Give You Work-Related Injury Sick Pay in the UK?

This section will attempt to answer the question, “if I am injured at work, do I get full pay?”.

Every employer in the UK owes you a duty of care as established in The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Effectively, this means that they need to ensure, within reason, that the work environment, facilities and equipment are safe enough to be used without causing harm. Therefore, if you injure yourself because, for example, you used faulty work equipment supplied by your employer, you may be able to claim.

However, you may be wondering how this relates to pay if you’ve been injured at work. Whether you receive sick pay after an accident at work or not depends on the details in your employment contract. This is the case regardless of whether employer negligence has caused your injury. This is because they are not legally obliged to pay for the time you need to take off work.

Depending on what your contract stipulates, you may only receive partial pay during this time period or no pay at all. Instead, you could receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Whether you receive partial or no sick pay, you could claim for the loss of earnings caused as part of the claims process.

If you need further guidance about this, you can call our advisors at a time that works for you using the above details. They can answer any questions you have, whether you’re a full-time employer, an agency worker or self-employed.

What Is Statutory Sick Pay And When Could You Claim It?

If you don’t get full pay after being injured at work, you might receive SSP instead. However, SSP may not cover your full salary as it’s a set rate per week.

In order to qualify for SSP, you must:

Be an employee and have done some work for your employer
Earn an average of £120 minimum per week
Have been sick for a minimum of 4 consecutive days, including non-working days

There are various exceptions that could mean you don’t qualify for SSP. For instance, if you have received the maximum amount of SSP already, you won’t be entitled to any more.

For more information on whether you qualify, please get in touch with our team on the number above.

Can Employers Ask You To Work When Off Sick?

If you take sick leave for less than 7 days, you can self-certify which means no fit note is required to prove your illness. However, if you’re sick for longer than 7 consecutive days, you must provide your employer with a fit note or sick note to explain your absence.

If you cannot prove your absence after 7 days and you’re still off, your employer may ask you to return to work.

However, if you do have proof of sickness and your employer asks you to work, you could raise it as a concern.

Furthermore, if your condition worsens as a result of your employer forcing you to work while sick, you may be able to claim against them. This is because they could be considered to have breached the duty of care that they owe you to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your safety and wellbeing.

Can I Be Sacked For Having An Accident At Work?

Under legislation including the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer should not dismiss one of their employees simply for being in an accident at work or for being injured at work. An employer can only dismiss one of their workers (or take other disciplinary action) if they are responsible for causing the accident.

So, if you were not responsible for becoming injured at work, your employer should not dismiss you in response to this. If your employer was to sack you for this, then you may be able to claim against them for unfair dismissal.

What Should You Do If You Don’t Get Full Pay If Injured At Work?

If you’re concerned you’re not getting the right level of sick pay, there are a few things you can do, such as:

Read your employment contract to find out if and how much you should get.
Talk to your employer and ask them whether there is an issue with your sick pay.
If you don’t think your employer has calculated your SSP correctly, you could take the issue to HM Revenue & Customs for a resolution.

For more information on what you can do if you’re not getting the correct sick pay, as well as an answer to the question “do I get full pay after being injured at work?”, call our team.

What Can I Claim If Injured At Work?

You may be able to claim compensation from your employer if they caused you harm by breaching the duty of care they owed you. Your compensation settlement may comprise of:

General damages: This is compensation for any physical or psychological damage caused by someone’s negligence.
Special damages: This covers any financial losses incurred as a direct result of your injuries. It may only be possible to claim for special damages through a personal injury claim if you are entitled to claim for general damages.

In order to accurately calculate the value of your injuries, you may be invited to attend a medical appointment with an independent medical expert. This assessment will generate a report which will be used to value your claim.

The table below shows example compensation brackets outlined in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG is a document often used by legal professionals to help value claims.

These figures have been taken from the sixteenth edition of the JCG, the latest one available, published in April 2022. Please note the figures in the table should only be used as a guide as your actual settlement will vary. For a more accurate assessment of your claim that takes your individual circumstances into consideration, speak with a member of our team today.

Type Of Injury	Additional Injury Details	Compensation Bracket
Loss of One Arm (ii)	(b) (i) Where a person has lost one arm that's been amputated above the elbow.	£109,650 to £130,930
Pelvis And Hip Injuries	(a) Severe: (i) An extensive fractured pelvis as well as a lower back joint dislocation and a ruptured bladder.	£78,400 to £130,930
Asbestos-Related Disease	(a) Where mesothelioma has resulted in severe pain and a severe impact on someone's quality of life.	£63,650 to £114,460
Ankle	(c) Moderate: A fracture or ligament tear that results in difficulty walking on uneven ground.	£13,740 to £26,590
Deafness/ Tinnitus	(d)(iii) A case of mild tinnitus as well as noise induced hearing loss resulting from a prolonged period of noise exposure at work.	£12,590 to £14,900
Back Injuries	(b) Moderate: (ii) A back injury that has affected the ligaments and muscles resulting in back ache and soft tissue injuries that may accelerate or exacerbate a pre-existing condition.	£12,510 to £27,760
Chest Injuries	(e) Where toxic fume or smoke inhalation has left some damage but no permanent impact on lung function.	£5,320 to £12,590
Neck	(c) Minor: (i) A soft tissue injury that fully recovers within two years.	£4,350 to £7,890
Injuries Affecting Sight	(h) Examples might include a minor injury caused by exposure to fumes or being splashed by liquids. The injury might cause initial pain and interfere with vision temporarily.	£3,950 to £8,730
Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome	(d) A minor case where only a few fingers are affected and symptoms are occasional. It may also have some effect on work and leisure.	£2,990 to £8,640

Special Damages – What Are They?

Special damages can be paid to you to make up for different financial losses that you have incurred as a result of your injury. They seek to reimburse you for both past and future losses provided you have evidence to prove any monetary losses.

Below are some examples of what you could claim under special damages:

Lost wages: If your employer did not pay you in full for the time you took off work, you could claim them back.
Care costs: You may have needed to hire a nurse to provide you with care at home.
Medical bills: You may have required private treatment that wasn’t available on the NHS.

For more information on the additional expenses, you could claim back if you didn’t get full pay after being injured at work, call our team.

Talk To A No Win No Fee Work Injury Claim Lawyer

You may want to have a lawyer represent you in your claim but be hesitant because of the large legal fees this can incur. However, you could hire a personal injury solicitor to represent your claim on a No Win No Fee basis.

This means there are no upfront fees to pay to get your claim started. If the claim fails, you also do not need to pay your solicitor anything at all.

You only pay them a small fee, which is legally capped, if the claim is a success. The fee is taken from your compensation.

Our panel of solicitors work on this basis and could take your claim on, provided it is valid. If you’d like to learn how you could work with a solicitor from our panel, get in touch with our team.

Alternatively, you may want further clarification on claiming compensation if you did not get full pay after being injured at work. If so, use the information below to reach out to our team for some help.

Telephone: 0800 408 7825.
Online form: Fill out the contact form with your query.
Live chat: Chat with an advisor using the live chat function below.