Firefighter sick pay: 6 months full pay, 6 half (Grey Book)

The national sick pay scheme in one page

Firefighter sick pay is set in Section 4, Part B (Occupational Health) of the NJC Scheme of Conditions of Service, the Grey Book. It is a contractual scheme, which means it is much more generous than the statutory minimum that applies to most UK employees. The Grey Book says the provisions are intended to supplement Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Employment and Support Allowance (or Incapacity Benefit if eligible) in order to maintain normal pay while you are entitled to full pay.

There are two tracks. On the ordinary track you are entitled to full pay for six months in any twelve-month period. After that the fire and rescue employer may reduce your pay by up to half for a further six months. On the duty track, if the illness or injury arose out of authorised duty, you are entitled to full pay for twelve months and then up to half pay for six months. In exceptional cases the employer has discretion to extend the period of sick pay.

These are national minimum terms, and the Grey Book does not carve out a qualifying period, so the entitlement applies from the start of employment. Some services have local sickness absence and attendance management policies that sit on top, with triggers for review meetings. Those policies do not change your contractual sick pay, but they do affect how your absence is managed, so it is worth reading both.

How “full pay” and “half pay” are worked out

The Grey Book defines full pay carefully. For someone on authorised sick leave, full pay is an amount which, when added to the SSP and ESA you receive, equals the contractual earnings you would be paid during a period of normal working. In other words, the employer tops up whatever the state pays so that the total matches your usual pay. For a day-crewing firefighter who also undertakes retained duties, that includes the annual retainer and up to four weekly payments in a calendar year for routine training, development and maintenance sessions.

Half pay is treated differently. When calculating half pay, any SSP or ESA you receive is disregarded, except where the resulting amount added to the state benefit would exceed normal pay. In no circumstances should sick pay, added to SSP and ESA, exceed your normal pay. GOV.UK currently gives the weekly SSP rate as £123.25, payable for up to 28 weeks, and you must declare to your employer any entitlement to sickness-related benefit and any later change in circumstances.

The rolling twelve-month rule is the part that catches people out. The period for which you are paid, and the rate, are worked out by deducting from your entitlement on the first day of absence the total of paid absence in the twelve months immediately before that day. Entitlement is therefore not a fresh six months each calendar year; it is measured back from each new absence.

Worked example: a competent firefighter off sick

Take a competent firefighter on the July 2026 national basic salary of £40,358. Dividing by 52.143 gives a weekly basic of about £774. That is the figure the employer must, in effect, maintain during the full-pay period. The illustrations below use round numbers and ignore tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, which continue to be deducted as normal from any pay you receive.

In the first example the firefighter has no absence in the previous twelve months and is then off for eight months with an ordinary illness. For the first six months they receive about £774 a week in total, made up of SSP (£123.25 while it is payable) and a top-up from the service. For the next two months the employer may reduce pay by up to half, roughly £387 a week, with SSP disregarded unless the total would exceed normal pay.

In the second example the same firefighter had already been off for four months of paid sickness in the past twelve. Subtracting that from the six-month entitlement leaves two months of full pay. If a new absence lasts three months, the first two months are on full pay and the third month is on up to half pay. This is why short absences on different occasions still count against you over the rolling year.

Duty-related sickness and injury

The longer full-pay period exists because the Grey Book treats illness or injury arising out of authorised duty differently. You are entitled to twelve months on full pay and then up to six months on half pay. The Grey Book also says that absence for ordinary sickness is recorded separately from absence arising out of authorised duty, and that periods of one do not count against the other in calculating sick pay entitlement.

If you and the service’s medical adviser disagree about whether an illness or injury arose out of authorised duty, or about your fitness for duty, the Grey Book says an independent medical opinion should be sought. The employer and employee should agree an independent person appointed solely on medical credentials, and where they cannot agree, the matter goes to the NJC Joint Secretaries for decision. Keep your own medical evidence and the incident record.

Other protections apply after a duty injury. The employer must reimburse NHS charges under sections 77, 78 or 79 of the National Health Service Act 1977 where they arise directly from an illness or injury arising out of authorised duty, and may reimburse other medical treatment costs as it thinks fit. Where you are absent as a result of an accident and damages may be recoverable from a third party, the employer must advance a sum equivalent to sick pay, and you are asked to include it in any damages claim and repay it from any loss-of-earnings award. Our guide to injured on duty entitlements covers the longer-term compensation position.

What you must do to keep your sick pay

Sick pay is conditional on following the notification and certification rules in the Grey Book. They are not optional extras: failure to comply can put pay at risk. The rules are practical and worth memorising before you need them.

You must notify immediately the person your service has identified for this purpose. You must give further notification of the nature and probable duration of your illness or injury as required. A healthcare professional’s statement or fit note must be submitted no later than the eighth calendar day of absence, and subsequent fit notes as necessary. If a fit note covers more than fourteen days, or more than one is needed, you must submit a final statement of fitness before returning. On returning, you sign a statement giving the reasons for all absences of up to and including seven days.

1. Tell the nominated contact at the start of your shift, or as soon as you know you cannot attend, and follow your service’s call-in process.
2. Give updates on the likely duration and nature of the illness or injury whenever the service asks.
3. Get a fit note and get it to the service by the eighth calendar day of absence.
4. Send follow-on fit notes without gaps, and ask for a fitness-to-return statement if absence has passed fourteen days.
5. On returning, sign the self-certification for absences of up to seven days.
6. Tell the service about any sickness-related benefits you receive, and any change to them.

Medical examinations, neglect and second jobs

The Grey Book allows your employer to require you to attend a medical examination at any time while you are on sick leave, and to require one where it believes a medical condition could prevent you from doing your duties. The employer meets the cost of an examination by a nominated practitioner, subject to the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, and must reimburse the cost of any healthcare professional’s statement it requires from you.

There are circumstances where the entitlement can be limited. If you refuse or neglect to undergo a required medical examination, or in the employer’s opinion, acting on medical advice, you have caused or substantially aggravated the illness or injury by neglect or default, or have refused or neglected to co-operate fully with medical treatment the employer considers necessary, you are entitled only to such paid sick leave as the employer may determine.

The same limit applies where the absence is due to an illness or injury wholly attributable to holding another office or employment for gain, running a trade or business, or taking part in sport as a profession. If you have another job, our guide to the firefighter second job rules explains why approval and disclosure matter.

Sickness and annual leave, public holidays and maternity leave

Sickness interacts with other leave in specific ways. If you fall sick while on annual leave, or are absent through sickness when your leave falls due, you are regarded as being on sick leave as long as the absence is covered by a fit note. You may be able to take the outstanding leave later, normally before the end of the leave year or, exceptionally, by 31 March. Where sickness stopped you taking statutory annual leave under the Working Time Regulations, the period for taking it can be extended.

If you are on sick leave on a public holiday, you are treated as being on public holiday leave and do not receive a day in lieu later. That is a small but real cost of sickness that is easy to miss. See firefighter annual leave for the full public holiday rules.

Maternity leave is not treated as sick leave and does not count against sick leave entitlement. If you are unable to return on the expected date because of sickness, you are still regarded as having returned to work, and the sickness is notified and certified like any other. For the maternity terms themselves, see firefighter maternity and paternity leave.

On-call and control staff: how the rules differ

On-call (retained) firefighters are covered by the same scheme but with different arithmetic, because their earnings vary. On authorised sick leave, full pay for an on-call employee is calculated daily as one-seventh of their average weekly wage per day. Average weekly wage is the average over the previous 12 weeks, excluding any week on sick leave or with no pay, and the annual retainer is disregarded in that average because it continues to be paid during paid sickness, subject to the reduction to half pay.

For an on-call firefighter injured on duty, full pay means average weekly remuneration in the previous twelve weeks, taking all payments into account. If you can show satisfactory evidence that, as a direct result of the injury, you have lost earnings from your usual job, full pay can be the actual loss, capped at the maximum basic weekly rate of an Area Manager. Authorised duty for on-call staff includes responding directly and promptly to an emergency call, but not travelling to the station for any other purpose.

Fire control staff are Grey Book employees and are covered by the same sick pay provisions as wholetime colleagues. On-call employees who find it hard to supply an original fit note are encouraged to be given a flexible approach by employers, such as accepting photocopies. For how on-call pay is built, see the guide to on-call firefighter pay.

Checking your payslip and planning for a long absence

During a long absence, a payslip check matters more than usual. You should see a consistent gross amount equal to your normal pay while on full pay, with SSP and the employer top-up combined. When half pay starts, expect a visible drop. Compare the change date with your own record of absence dates over the previous twelve months, and ask payroll for the calculation if the date looks early. Our payslip checker can help you spot missing elements.

If a long absence looks likely, work out the household budget for the half-pay period early, when you still have the choice to adjust. The Grey Book only guarantees the scheme described here; it does not promise a top-up beyond eighteen months in the ordinary case. Consider whether you have income protection or life cover, and read our guide to income protection and life cover for firefighters.

Finally, remember that pension implications flow from absence. Contributions continue on the pay you actually receive, and how a period of reduced pay affects pensionable pay and CARE accrual is a scheme-administrator question. Use the pension calculator for a first estimate, then ask your administrator for the exact effect.