Personal Injury Senior Associate Solicitor, Serious Injury Team Leader
Yes. If you’ve suffered an injury in an accident at work in England or Wales and you’re unable to work for at least 4 consecutive days, your employer has to pay you Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Alternatively, they may have their own sick pay scheme in place which pays out a higher amount.
However, claiming compensation may be the only way to ensure you get the full amount of pay you’ve lost, and be able to afford any medical treatment, care and rehabilitation without putting yourself under financial pressure.
Our Personal Injury Solicitors and Litigation Lawyers are specialists in accident at work claims. We offer free legal advice and can advise you on your legal rights. Get in touch for a free consultation so we can discuss the details of your accident with you. Ask if we can deal with your claim on a No Win, No Fee basis.
We're rated‘Excellent’It’s your employer’s duty to take reasonable care of your health and safety at work, and take the necessary measures to reduce the risks of accidents in the workplace. For example, your employer should:
If your employer has failed to take steps to keep you safe and you suffer injuries in an accident at work as a result, you could be entitled to compensation. When compensation is awarded, in most cases the compensation is paid by the employers’ liability insurer, and not by the employer.
Our Personal Injury Solicitors negotiate with insurers on a daily basis to get the best possible compensation settlements for our clients. It’s often the case that we negotiate a higher settlement than initially offered by an insurer. In one particular work accident case, the insurer offered £85,000 compensation but we pursued the case until the settlement offer was increased to £300,000 compensation; which our client accepted.
For more details and to see different amounts of compensation payouts in employers' liability claims, see Examples of Accident at Work Cases.
To qualify for SSP, you must:
Your employer may also have an occupational sickness scheme of their own in place, which may be fairly generous when compared with SSP, so it’s worth looking at your employment contract to find out what you’re entitled to.
If you aren’t eligible for SSP, you may be entitled to apply for Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Remember that SSP may not necessarily cover your entire wage, which is a good reason to find out how much compensation you could be entitled to.
You should also be aware that if you are making a work accident claim, that your employer isn’t allowed to treat you any differently as a result. Otherwise, your employer could be breaching your employment rights, as laid out in law.
You’re entitled to £94.25 a week in SSP if you’re unable to work following an accident in the workplace. Your employer must pay this amount for up to 28 weeks. If your employer has an occupational sickness scheme, details of the amount you should be paid in sick pay will be outlined in your employment contract.
You must make a claim within 3 years of your accident taking place. Otherwise, you may be too late to claim a settlement that compensates you for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity you’ve experienced, and the financial impact of your accident, such as medical fees, travel expenses and loss of earnings.
The duty of employers to ensure every member of staff works in a safe environment applies just as much in an office as it does in other, more seemingly dangerous workplaces, such as warehouses, building sites and factories.
If you sustain an injury at work because your employer didn’t do enough to keep you safe, you have a legal right to claim compensation for your pain, suffering and loss of income.
If you suffer an accident in the workplace, you must make sure the details are properly recorded and that you gather as much information as you can at the scene.
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