Off sick on a bank holiday: do you get the day back?
If illness swallowed a day of annual leave, ask for it back. If you missed a shift, the issue is sick pay. Your rota and holiday balance tell you which.
A Christmas shutdown is not much of a break if you spend it in bed with flu. If your employer counted that bank holiday as annual leave, report the sickness and ask for the holiday back. You should not have to spend your rest entitlement on being unfit for work. But a missed care-home shift or a Monday you never work is a different case.
- £123.25
- weekly SSP maximum in 2026/27, or 80% if lower
- 5.6 wks
- statutory paid holiday, which can include bank holidays
- Day one
- SSP from first qualifying day, if eligible
- 18 mths
- sickness carry-over deadline after the leave year ends
Do this before the next payslip
Get the sickness recorded before a holiday deduction disappears into the next payslip.
- Report the sickness. Follow the absence procedure and give the dates you were unfit for work. For SSP, notify your employer by its deadline, or within seven days if it has set none. If you phone, follow up in writing.
- Ask for the holiday back. Say which booked or employer-allocated holiday dates should become sick leave. Ask for written confirmation of the corrected balance.
- Save the evidence. Keep the rota, holiday booking, sickness report, relevant contract clauses and payslip somewhere you can access outside work.
- Check both records. A restored holiday balance does not prove the sick pay is right. Check the pay for each qualifying day too.
- Challenge a refusal promptly. Ask for the reason in writing. Get your union involved and use the enforcement routes below. A grievance does not stop a tribunal deadline.
Which bank holiday, and what was it on your rota?
Boxing Day 2026 falls on Saturday 26 December. The substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December across the UK. Check the actual date your employer allocated as leave. A contract may also promise something for the Saturday. Whether you can be required to work or should receive a premium is covered in working at Christmas. Here, the question is what happens when you are ill.
| Date | Where | Bank holiday |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 30 November 2026 | Scotland | St Andrew’s Day |
| Friday 25 December 2026 | Across the UK | Christmas Day |
| Monday 28 December 2026 | Across the UK | Boxing Day substitute |
| Friday 1 January 2027 | Across the UK | New Year’s Day |
| Monday 4 January 2027 | Scotland | 2 January substitute |
The dates come from GOV.UK’s bank holiday calendar. There is no general statutory right to have them off, or to receive extra pay for working them. Your employer can count bank holidays towards your 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday. Extra days or premiums depend on your contract.
First check whether the date was annual leave, a working shift or a rest day.
| What the bank holiday was | Holiday balance | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory annual leave, with sickness reported and conversion requested | Restore the leave for another date | Sick pay if eligible, rather than holiday pay |
| Annual leave, with no sickness reported | Stays used as holiday | Holiday pay |
| A shift you were due to work | No holiday used | Sick pay if eligible. No automatic bank holiday premium |
| A rest day | No holiday to deduct | SSP depends on qualifying days, not the bank holiday label |
| A contractual day off above the statutory minimum | Check the contract’s replacement-day rules | Check the contract and SSP eligibility |
Acas confirms that you can report sickness during annual leave, keep that holiday to use later and receive SSP if entitled to it. Holiday continues to build up while you are off sick.
If the day was booked or allocated leave
You do not have to have chosen the holiday yourself. If the warehouse closes at Christmas and deducts annual leave, those are holiday days. Report that you were unfit for work and ask to treat them as sickness instead. You keep the leave, but the immediate pay may be much lower.
Example: Samira’s Christmas fortnight
Samira is 24 and works Monday to Friday in an English supermarket, eight hours a day at £12.71 an hour, the National Living Wage from 1 April 2026. Her regular earnings are £101.68 a day and £508.40 a week. Her contract gives 28 days’ holiday including bank holidays. Christmas Day and Monday 28 December were allocated as annual leave.
She is unfit for work from Monday 21 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 and reports it on the first day. She asks to convert the two allocated holiday days to sick leave. Both come back to her holiday balance.
Assume her average weekly earnings are also £508.40, she qualifies for SSP throughout and she has no contractual sick pay. Eighty per cent of £508.40 is £406.72, so the weekly £123.25 cap applies. With five qualifying days a week, that is £123.25 ÷ 5 = £24.65 per qualifying day. Over two full weeks she receives £246.50, rather than £1,016.80 in normal wages.
For the two converted holiday days alone, Samira receives £49.30 in SSP instead of £203.36 in holiday pay. She keeps two days of paid holiday to take when well. Restoring the leave matters even when the smaller payslip makes taking sick leave painful.
“You were off anyway” does not answer whether the day was annual leave you were too ill to take.
If the contract says “28 days plus bank holidays”, do not assume the extra days vanish when you are ill. The statutory 28 days and the additional contractual bank holidays are different entitlements. Check whether the contract gives a replacement day for sickness on an extra holiday. There is no automatic statutory bonus day simply because a bank holiday fell during illness.
If you were supposed to work it
A care assistant due to work Monday 28 December is not on holiday. Calling in sick creates no holiday day to reclaim. Her employer should deal with the absence and sick pay, not deduct annual leave to cover the missed shift.
Example: Carol misses her bank holiday shift
Carol has the same regular pay as Samira and five qualifying days a week. Monday 28 December is on her rota. She reports sickness before the shift and qualifies for SSP. At the weekly cap, that day’s SSP is £24.65. A contractual scheme may pay more. Her holiday balance does not change.
A premium for working a bank holiday is not automatically payable when you are sick. Read the premium and sick-pay clauses together. For disputes about attendance warnings rather than pay or leave, see sickness absence warnings and discipline during sick leave.
Part-time, and Mondays you never work
If you never work Mondays, Monday 28 December is not a working day that needs annual leave. Your employer cannot deduct holiday for it. You still receive 5.6 weeks based on your working pattern. Three equal days a week means 5.6 × 3 = 16.8 days a year. It does not mean 28 days minus every Monday bank holiday, and the employer cannot round the entitlement down.
Acas explains the part-time rule. Use the holiday calculator for your pattern and read part-time worker rights if full-timers receive extra contractual bank holiday benefits. Do not assume every day without a shift is automatically outside SSP. For irregular rotas, ask payroll which qualifying days it used and why.
Can they take it out of your 28 days?
Yes, bank holidays can count within your statutory entitlement. For regular-hours workers, 5.6 weeks comprises four weeks under regulation 13 and 1.6 weeks under regulation 13A of the Working Time Regulations 1998. That is 20 plus eight days on a five-day week, not 28 days plus bank holidays. The split matters for sickness carry-over.
| Contract wording | What it means | If you are ill |
|---|---|---|
| “28 days including bank holidays” | Bank holidays can use part of the 28 | Report sickness and request restoration of statutory leave |
| “28 days plus bank holidays” | Bank holidays are an additional contractual benefit | Check the terms for replacing an extra day |
| No clear bank holiday clause | Employer may designate annual leave with proper notice | Ask what notice or agreement it relies on |
Under regulation 15, the default is notice at least twice the length of leave the employer requires you to take. One day’s leave needs at least two days’ notice. A relevant agreement can vary these rules, so check the contract or collective agreement. A retrospective deduction on a payslip is not, by itself, advance notice.
The employer cannot simply buy out untaken statutory leave while you remain employed. Payment instead of taking that leave is generally allowed only when employment ends. That is separate from lawful rolled-up holiday pay for eligible irregular-hours and part-year workers, who must still be able to take time off. See the holiday pay guide.
What the sick day actually pays
For 2026/27, SSP is £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks. Your employer pays it. A qualifying bank holiday is not paid at a special SSP rate.
SSP is paid for qualifying days, usually the days you normally work. Those days can still count when booked annual leave becomes sick leave. In Samira’s example, the Friday and Monday do not stop being qualifying days because they were allocated as holiday.
From 6 April 2026, there are no three waiting days and no £125 weekly earnings floor. SSP can start on the first qualifying day. But “day one” is not a promise of pay for everyone who is ill. You must meet the eligibility rules, including having started work, being employed for tax purposes and reporting the sickness. Agency and casual workers can qualify too.
GOV.UK lists the exclusions, including having exhausted the 28-week entitlement or receiving Statutory Maternity Pay. A part-day absence is not the same as being ill for a full working day. If payroll refuses SSP, ask for its reason and form SSP1 rather than accepting “you are casual”.
Example: a part-time cleaner’s SSP
A cleaner regularly earns £127.10 a week from ten hours at £12.71. Assume that is also her average weekly earnings for SSP. Eighty per cent is £101.68, below the £123.25 maximum, so her weekly SSP is £101.68. With two qualifying days a week, she receives £50.84 for each. A worker whose average weekly earnings are £110 receives £88 a week if otherwise eligible. The old earnings floor would have excluded them.
Check your figures against HMRC’s 2026/27 rates and the SSP calculator. For absences spanning the April change, use the transitional guidance. The SSP guide covers the wider rules.
Contractual sick pay may top up SSP, sometimes to full wages. Check who the scheme covers and its reporting requirements. SSP normally counts towards contractual sick pay, rather than being added on top. A contract cannot take away SSP you are legally entitled to.
Samira’s fortnight leaves a £770.30 gap between normal wages and SSP. Getting the holiday back does not close it. Our view is that keeping your rest entitlement should not require choosing between recovery and bills. Check the contractual sick-pay scheme before assuming the statutory amount is all you can claim.
They cannot make you spend holiday while you are sick
Already off sick when the bank holiday arrives? An employer cannot force you to use annual leave during sickness absence. A Christmas shutdown does not change that. Tell the employer if the system has deducted the day and request correction.
You can choose to request holiday while off sick. If the employer approves it, sick leave pauses, you receive holiday pay and the holiday is used. Sick leave can resume afterwards if you are still unfit. Acas explains both options. Make the choice in writing so that accepting holiday pay is not confused with asking to preserve the day.
If sickness ate the leave year
If sickness prevented you taking annual leave before the leave year ended, regular-hours workers can carry forward the unused part of their four-week regulation 13 entitlement. It must be taken within 18 months of that leave year’s end. The additional 1.6 weeks do not automatically carry over for sickness, although a contract or agreement can allow it.
Example: eight days left on 31 March
Leah works five days a week and her leave year ends on 31 March 2027. Sickness prevented her taking eight remaining days. If all eight are part of her four-week entitlement, she can carry them forward and must take them by 30 September 2028. If she has already taken all 20 days in that entitlement and the remaining eight are the additional 1.6 weeks, she needs a contract or agreement allowing carry-over. Ask the employer to explain how it allocated the leave already taken.
Do not let payroll impose a four-week minimum absence before considering this right. Regulation 13(15) requires sickness to have prevented the leave; it does not require the illness itself to last four weeks. Holiday also continues to accrue during sickness. Separate protection applies where the employer failed to recognise your right, give you a reasonable chance to take leave or warn that it would be lost. See holiday blocked at year-end. Irregular-hours and part-year workers have different carry-over rules, below.
Agency, zero-hours, and the self-employed label
Employee
- Statutory paid holiday and the right to reschedule leave affected by sickness
- SSP if you meet its eligibility rules
- Contractual sick pay if your employer’s scheme covers you
Worker
- Statutory paid holiday, including on qualifying zero-hours arrangements
- SSP can apply if you are employed for tax purposes
- Contractual sick pay depends on the scheme’s terms
“Zero-hours” does not mean no holiday rights. In Great Britain, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, qualifying irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue statutory holiday at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. Holiday still builds up during sickness, using a separate average-hours calculation. Lawful rolled-up holiday pay changes when the money is paid, not the right to take time off. See zero-hours contracts and Acas’s sickness accrual guidance.
Under these Great Britain irregular-hours and part-year rules, sickness carry-over can cover up to 5.6 weeks of accrued, untaken statutory holiday, rather than the regular-hours four-week limit. It must be used within 18 months after the leave year in which it accrued. Acas sets out the distinction. Ask for a calculation in hours if that is how your entitlement is recorded.
Agency workers do not have to wait 12 weeks for basic statutory holiday rights. The Agency Workers Regulations’ 12-week equal-treatment right is separate. Chase leave through the agency and report sickness to it as well as the site manager. The agency normally deals with SSP if it is your employer for that purpose. Read the agency workers guide.
Genuinely self-employed people do not receive statutory paid holiday or SSP. Benefits such as New Style Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit may be available under their own rules. If the business controls your rota and calls you self-employed, check the reality of the arrangement rather than accepting the label. See false self-employment and employment status.
If they refuse the day or the pay
Separate the statutory sick-pay dispute from the holiday dispute. Contractual sick pay may need a different legal route from SSP, so show the contract to your adviser.
- Put the refusal in a grievance. Give the dates, when you reported sickness, what the rota shows and the correction you want. Keep a copy. The grievance process does not extend a tribunal deadline.
- Take an SSP dispute to HMRC. Contact the statutory payment dispute team if you cannot resolve entitlement or payment with the employer. Keep the payslip, sickness report, rota and refusal.
- For holiday, contact Acas in Great Britain. You normally need to notify Acas before making a tribunal claim. For relevant events on or after 1 October 2026, most claims have a six-month-minus-one-day limit. Earlier events generally retain the old three-month-minus-one-day limit. The starting date depends on the claim, so get advice on a refused day as well as a short payslip. Timely notification for early conciliation pauses the clock. Waiting for payroll or a grievance does not. Check Acas’s time-limit guidance and our tribunal deadlines guide.
- Get help before doing it alone. Ask your rep. Usdaw organises retail workers; UNISON covers care and NHS support; GMB and Unite also organise across care, logistics, food and hospitality. Use the union guide to find your sector. Citizens Advice and law centres are other advice routes. Ask about eligibility for legal help rather than assuming representation is available.
There is a Scottish exception to the new time limit for breach-of-contract tribunal claims. As at 1 October 2026, it remains three months minus one day, with extension scheduled for breaches on or after 9 November 2026. Get advice on the correct claim and deadline. Northern Ireland has its own procedure, below. If your visa is tied to the employer, take advice before resigning.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
England, Wales and Scotland share the Working Time Regulations 1998 rules described above. Scotland has a different bank holiday calendar, including St Andrew’s Day and the 2 January holiday. Your contract and working pattern still determine whether a particular date uses annual leave.
Northern Ireland’s leave law is in the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, with parallel sickness and holiday protections. Do not use Great Britain regulation numbers or assume the Great Britain tribunal deadline applies. Contact the Labour Relations Agency for advice and early conciliation before an industrial tribunal claim. SSP changed on the same terms from 6 April 2026, as the LRA explains. See Northern Ireland employment rights for the separate enforcement system.
The 2024 Great Britain reforms for irregular-hours and part-year workers described above should not be assumed to apply in Northern Ireland. If that is your working pattern, ask the LRA to check your holiday calculation and carry-over entitlement.
What is in force on 1 October 2026?
- Sickness carry-over is written into the Great Britain regulations
For regular-hours workers, unused four-week entitlement affected by sickness can carry over, with an 18-month deadline after the leave year ends. Different rules cover qualifying irregular-hours and part-year workers.
- SSP starts without waiting days or an earnings floor
The 2026/27 rate is the lower of £123.25 a week and 80% of average weekly earnings. You still need to meet the other eligibility rules.
- Most Great Britain tribunal limits extend
Six months minus one day generally applies to relevant events from this date. Earlier events and the Scottish breach-of-contract exception need separate attention.
Questions people ask
Does sickness on a bank holiday mean you get another day off?
Only if there is holiday to preserve or a contractual replacement-day right. Report sickness on statutory annual leave and ask to take the holiday later. Missing a working shift does not create an extra holiday. Being ill on a rest day does not create one either.
Can your employer deduct a bank holiday from the 28 days?
Yes, the statutory 5.6 weeks can include bank holidays. The employer must allocate the leave properly. The default notice for compulsory leave is twice its length, although a relevant agreement can vary that. A day you never work should not be deducted as annual leave.
What if you were due to work and called in sick?
It is sickness absence, not holiday. SSP may be due from the first qualifying day. In 2026/27 it is £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. With five qualifying days at the cap, one day’s SSP is £24.65. Contractual sick pay may be higher.
Do the three waiting days or £125 earnings floor still apply?
No. Both were removed from 6 April 2026 in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You still need to meet SSP’s other eligibility rules. An old handbook does not override the current statutory entitlement.
What if you never work Mondays?
A Monday bank holiday is not a day of annual leave for you, so it should not reduce your balance. You remain entitled to 5.6 weeks based on your working pattern. Three equal working days a week means 16.8 days of statutory holiday.
Does unused holiday disappear after sickness?
Not if the sickness carry-over rules protect it. For regular-hours workers, up to four weeks can carry over when sickness prevented taking it, with an 18-month deadline from the leave year’s end. The extra 1.6 weeks depend on an agreement. Qualifying irregular-hours and part-year workers can carry over up to 5.6 weeks of accrued, untaken holiday under their separate rules.
Sources
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 13, legislation.gov.uk. Four-week entitlement, sickness carry-over and payment in lieu.
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 13A, legislation.gov.uk. Additional 1.6 weeks.
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15, legislation.gov.uk. Notice and relevant agreements.
- Holiday entitlement, GOV.UK.
- UK bank holidays, GOV.UK.
- Bank holidays and Christmas, Acas.
- Sick pay and holiday pay, Acas, updated 30 June 2026.
- Other leave and sickness for irregular-hours and part-year workers, Acas, updated 22 April 2026.
- Carrying over holiday for irregular-hours and part-year workers, Acas, updated 22 April 2026.
- Employment tribunal time limits, Acas, updated 1 October 2026. Includes the Scottish breach-of-contract exception and early conciliation.
- Statutory Sick Pay eligibility, GOV.UK.
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, HMRC. Statutory rates used in the worked examples and pay-gap reality check.
- Sickness absences spanning 6 April 2026, GOV.UK.
- Statutory payment dispute team, HMRC.
- Statutory Sick Pay changes 2026, Labour Relations Agency, 12 March 2026.
- Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, legislation.gov.uk.
- Workers cheated out of £2bn holiday pay, TUC, 8 September 2024. Analysis of Labour Force Survey data for the last quarter of 2023, including the care-worker and cleaner estimates.
- Make Work Pay: holiday pay compliance and enforcement, GOV.UK. Future enforcement proposals, not an existing individual remedy.