Self-Certification Form (SC2)

Self-certification is how you confirm sickness absence to your employer for the first 7 calendar days of illness, including weekends and days you wouldn’t normally work. It’s your own statement, not a doctor’s: no GP or clinic is involved, no appointment is needed, and your employer cannot insist on a doctor’s note for this period.

The rule exists because of how Statutory Sick Pay evidence works. For short absences, the law treats your own confirmation as sufficient evidence that you were unfit for work, requiring a GP visit for every two-day cold would bury both you and the NHS in pointless appointments. What your employer is entitled to is notification (telling them you’re off, promptly, following whatever procedure your contract sets out) and, usually, written confirmation of the dates and a brief reason once you’re back.

That written confirmation is where the self-certification form comes in. Many companies have their own version, some use an HR portal, and others are happy with a letter or email. The old standard was HMRC’s SC2 form – the ‘Employee’s Statement of Sickness’. HMRC no longer publishes it, but the format lives on: most company forms are SC2-style, and an SC2-style letter with the same details is valid everywhere. There is no single mandatory format in law – what matters is that the right information is recorded.

• Days 1-7 of sickness (calendar days, weekends and non-working days included): self-certification. No doctor’s note needed, and your employer can’t require one.
  
  
• Day 8 onwards: your employer can require a fit note from a doctor.
  
  
• Tell your employer you’re sick as soon as you reasonably can – within any deadline they set, or within 7 days at the latest, to protect your sick pay.

The counting trips people up, so here’s how it works in practice:

• Off Monday, back Thursday the same week: 3 calendar days. Self-certification covers all of it – no note, ever.
  
  
• Off Thursday, ill through the weekend, back the following Thursday: that’s 7 calendar days (Thursday to Wednesday), even though only 5 were working days. Still entirely self-certified – the weekend counts towards your 7, which works in your favour.
  
  
• Off Monday the 1st and still not fit on Monday the 8th: self-certification covered days 1-7, but from day 8 your employer can ask for a doctor’s fit note. If you’re eligible for sick pay it continues – you just need the medical evidence from this point.

A self-certification letter or form needs: your name and job title, the first day you were unwell, the last day you were unwell (or that the absence is ongoing), whether the days included non-working days, a brief reason for absence, and a line confirming the information is accurate.

‘Brief’ means brief. A general category – ‘viral illness’, ‘migraine’, ‘back pain’, ‘stress’ – is enough. You do not have to disclose a diagnosis, describe symptoms, or share anything you’d rather keep private, and this isn’t just etiquette: health information is special category data under UK GDPR, which means your employer should only collect what’s genuinely necessary to manage your absence and pay you correctly, and must store it securely with access limited to people who need it. A form that demands your medical history is overreaching – the details above are all a compliant form should ask for.

This matters most for mental health absences. ‘Stress’ or ‘anxiety’ as a category is a perfectly valid reason on a self-certification form and needs no further explanation. If you’d rather not name it at all, ‘medical reasons’ will usually do for the phone call, though the written form generally expects a general category.

Statutory Sick Pay changed significantly on 6 April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act, and a lot of advice online still describes the old system. Here’s the current position:

• Paid from day one – the old rule that the first 3 days were unpaid ‘waiting days’ has been abolished. If you’re eligible, SSP starts on your first day off sick.
  
  
• No minimum earnings – the Lower Earnings Limit has gone, so part-time and lower-paid workers who previously earned too little to qualify now get SSP too.
  
  
• The rate – the lower of GBP 123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings, paid through payroll like normal wages, for the days you would have worked (your ‘qualifying days’), for up to 28 weeks.
  
  
• The catch – tell your employer within their deadline (or 7 days at the latest). Late notification without good reason is one of the few ways to lose SSP for those days.

Many employers pay more than the statutory minimum under their own occupational sick pay scheme – full pay for a set period is common. Check your contract or staff handbook; whatever it says, it can’t take you below the statutory floor. One group SSP doesn’t cover: the self-employed, who have no employer to certify to and should look at income protection or benefits support instead.

• Employees and PAYE workers – the core group. Full-time, part-time, remote and hybrid staff are all treated identically – the 7-day rule doesn’t care about your hours or seniority.
  
  
• Agency workers – self-certify to whoever pays you (usually the agency). Since the earnings threshold was scrapped in April 2026, far more agency staff now qualify for SSP as well.
  
  
• Zero-hours workers – covered too. Sick pay is based on the days you’d have worked, so it’s worth agreeing with your employer which days count as your qualifying days.
  
  
• More than one job – self-certify to each employer separately; the 7-day rule and SSP eligibility run independently for each.
  
  
• Self-employed – self-certification doesn’t apply (there’s no employer to certify to) and SSP isn’t available. Clients may still ask for confirmation of illness, which a private doctor’s letter can provide.

You can self-certify more than once – each new period of sickness gets its own first 7 days, and there’s no annual limit on self-certification itself. Two things are worth knowing, though. For sick pay, separate absences close together (within 8 weeks) can be treated as linked, which mainly affects how your time counts towards the 28-week SSP maximum – your employer’s payroll handles this automatically. And for absence management, most companies review attendance if short absences become frequent; a return-to-work chat after each absence is normal practice, not an accusation. If repeated absences relate to an ongoing health condition, you may have the right to reasonable adjustments rather than a mark on your record, that’s a conversation worth having openly with your employer.

Most employers ask you to complete their sickness absence form on your first day back, and some hold a short return-to-work meeting – a five-minute confirmation of dates and whether you’re fit to resume, not an interrogation. It’s reasonable for them to ask how you are, whether anything work-related contributed, and whether you need any temporary adjustments; it’s not reasonable to demand medical details beyond the general reason you’ve already given. If you’ve used our generator, hand over the letter (or forward the PDF) and you’re done.

• Sick during annual leave – you can ask to convert those days to sick leave and reclaim the holiday; statutory holiday isn’t lost to illness. Normal notification rules apply, and self-certification covers the first 7 days as usual.
  
  
• Bank holidays and weekends – count as calendar days within your 7, like any other day.
  
  
• Notice period or probation – the same rules apply; self-certification and SSP rights don’t switch off because you’re new or leaving.
  
  
• Pregnancy-related sickness – fully valid for self-certification, with extra protection: it must not be treated as a disciplinary matter or counted towards ordinary absence triggers.
  
  
• University students – a different system. Universities use extenuating or mitigating circumstances procedures rather than workplace self-certification, and often want medical evidence sooner – see our student sickness letters.

If you’re still not well enough to work on day 8, self-certification stops covering you and your employer can ask for a doctor’s fit note. You can get one free from your NHS GP – if you can get an appointment in time. If you can’t, Health Works issues private fit notes the same day, after a 5-minute video call with a GMC-registered doctor. Get a sick note online

Tip: if you’re nearing the end of your first week and not improving, book your video consultation a day ahead so your fit note is ready the moment self-certification runs out – no gap in your paperwork or your sick pay.