Hi Gilly
Do check your organisation's sick policy When Stephen was diagnosed in November 2008. My doctor signed me off with stress due to my husband's illness.
I ran a hostel for single homeless young people with additional problems on top of having nowhere to live. Some had suffered abuse from at home, others had developed drug or alcohol problems, a few self harmed and some were just determined to get into a hostel by making up stories to get a quick road to a flat of their own.
Our job was to help them find work, and accommodation and get them back into everyday life.
Stephen had to give up work as soon as he got ill as some of his vertebrae had collapsed. He was self employed so there was no company sick pay for him.
Just after Stephen had to stop work I was working with a 23 year old male who had never worked, left school after playing truant for most of the time and had taken no exams. I was trying to find him work and encouraging him to consider some of the training courses that were on offer.
He informed me that he would not consider getting out of bed for less than £400-£500 per week,(2008) and on the same day he used the office phone to contact the DSS. He kept screaming down the phone that he was not going to attend a back to work interviw but wanted his F******g money as it was his and they had no right to withhold it. I won't even put down letters to describe the names he called the worker on the other end of the phone
I knew that I could blow my top at the people I worked with who were like him (here endeth the waffle)and my doctor signed me off. It was 2 weeks in the first place and my manageress phoned more than once to ask if I would be coming back. When I got signed off again my manager phoned me over and over to encourage me to either come back or leave.
I had worked in the company for nearly 20 years. I had always had a glowing yearly staff appraisal and my sick record had been exemplary but I got no support at all. I decided,then and there that I would leave on my terms. I claimed, full company sick pay for as long as it was there and then it went to half pay. I was frequently hassled on the phone by my manager to leave, and I refused. I claimed statutory sick pay at a worker's rate when my company sick pay ran out and limped on until March 2009 when I had my 59th birthday and retired. That extra year on my age from being 58 to being 59 made a difference to my private pension.
Gilly do check your organisition's policies and ask your Union Rep to go through the policies carefully and see just what you are entitled too. Get yourself signed off in chunks of time rather than here and there. You may be struggling in when you can but it won't be appreciated.
I was employed by a church housing that was funded by the church, council grants and donations and a less christian or carey sharey organisation would be hard to find.
It sounds as though yours is the same.
Do let us know how you get on
Good Luck Gill
PS sorry for long post but hope some of it is of help
