The DWP has issued strict guidelines for doctors to follow when issuing Fitness for Work notes (formerly known as ‘sick notes’).
If the illness is:
- Less than 3 days: your employer should not require a Fitness for Work note
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An SC2 self-certification form (SC1 for unemployed or self-employed) is used by an employee to provide their employer with details of sick absences of four or more days in a row. The completed SC2 form is then used to help decide whether or not the employee is entitled to receive SSP
- Self Certificate
- More than 7 days: You will need a Fitness for Work note and must see the doctor to get one. It is only at 7 days that you need a doctors’ note. If you require a note covering illness when you saw a different doctor (e.g. casualty) the doctor at the surgery must be in receipt of written evidence that you saw another doctor.
Fitness for Work notes needed before 7 days illness will incur a charge that should be borne by your employer.
Please visit the Department for Work and Pensions website for more information.