What sick pay am I entitled to?

SHARON HAMPSON, RUTHERGLEN & CAMBUSLANG CITIZENS’ ADVICE BUREAU MANAGER, ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

Q: I was off sick for three days and I haven’t been paid – are they allowed to do that?

A. You might be able to get Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) when you are off work sick but it depends on your earnings and your situation.

You can’t get SSP for the first three days you are off sick but after that you can get £99.35 a week for up to 28 weeks. Your employer might also pay you their own sick pay – usually called ‘contractual sick pay’ (CSP) and you can get CSP and SSP at the same time. If you work for an employer, you can usually get SSP if you have started work, are sick for four full days or more in a row, including your non-working days and earn at least £123 a week on average, before tax. How much CSP you get and how long you get it for will depend on what your contract says.

You might get CSP from your first day off sick. CSP can’t be less than £99.35 per week. If your contract doesn’t mention sick pay or you don’t have a contract, you should ask your employer. You might also find details about CSP in your staff handbook or intranet. If your employer doesn’t pay CSP then you should get SSP from day four of being off sick. That technically means the first three days can be unpaid.

Q: How do you get disqualified from driving?

A. The following offences almost always lead to automatic disqualification: culpable homicide while driving a vehicle, causing death by dangerous or careless driving, causing death by driving when unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured, driving or attempting to drive while under the influence of drink or drugs, driving or attempting to drive then failing to supply a specimen for analysis, or motor racing on a public road.

The court can also use its discretion to disqualify a driver if they have committed other serious offences and there is no set time period of disqualification. The court decides how long it will be and each case is treated individually. If, exceptionally, you’re not disqualified for one of these offences, the judge will impose an appropriate number of penalty points, depending on the nature of the offence.

If you collect 12 or more penalty points on your licence within three years then you’ll be liable to be disqualified from driving for a minimum of six months. There are special rules for new drivers. Someone who has collected 12 points may want to argue in court against a driving ban and there may be reasons that can be put to the court about hardship if banned.

If in this situation you should seek legal advice, although legal aid may not be available for a driving offence. If you’ve been disqualified once before in the last three years, the minimum disqualification is one year. If you’ve been disqualified more than once in the last three years, you will then be disqualified for at least two years.

Endorsements of more than three years standing are disregarded when totting up penalty points. A disqualification wipes out all previous convictions so that penalty points awarded before the disqualification will not be counted in any future adding together of points.

Q. I’m fed up getting junk mail - what can I do to put a stop to it?

A. Put a ‘no junk mail’ sign on your door. You can also tell Royal Mail to stop delivering leaflets and brochures to your address by filling in a form online that will last for two years.

Registering with the Direct Marketing Association’s ‘Your Choice’ scheme will help reduce the amount of marketing junk mail you get. Contact DMA and ask them to send you an opt-out form.

Register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) – this will stop advertising material that’s addressed to you personally. You can also contact your local electoral registration office and ask them to take your details off the ‘open register’ – this is a list of people and addresses that can be bought and used for sending junk mail.

You can also consider contacting a particular sender to ask them to stop sending mail if there’s one that’s bothering you and they should stop within a month of the request. If you get junk mail with a return address on the envelope, you should write “unsolicited mail, return to sender” on the envelope and post it – you don’t have to pay. This won’t guarantee that you won’t get any more junk mail, but it’s a way of letting the company know that you don’t want any more mail.

To make sure you don’t get more in future be careful of who you give your details to and unticking those marketing permission boxes.

Q. I’m 17, work part time and during the week I also tend to help my grandad out by generally keeping him company and checking he is OK. Sometimes I also pick up prescriptions and help with the housework. I am spending more time doing this the older he gets. Am I a “carer” now?

A. Lots of people don’t realise they are carers. All the activities you described are caring, even keeping someone company because by doing so you are promoting mental wellbeing, so it sounds like you might be eligible for the Young Carer Grant. If you have been caring for your grandad for the last 13 weeks and you’re Scottish, this is a payment of £326/year from Social Security Scotland to carers aged 16-18 years, who do at least 16 hours of caring a week on average but don’t receive Carer’s Allowance.

You don’t need to have worked to get the grant, and it doesn’t matter what your income is or if you are in work just now. To qualify, your grandad must also get a disability-related benefit, for example, Disability Living Allowance.

And don’t worry, his benefits won’t be affected if you make a claim. Your council might also be able to arrange practical help for you, like arranging for someone else to step in for a while to give you a break or providing extra support for the person you care for.

Q. I’m 16, was adopted, and want to find out who my birth parents are. How do I do it?

A. Generally speaking you have a right to see your original birth certificate. If you were adopted before November 1975, you’ll have to see a counsellor before you can obtain the certificate or make use of adoption records.

Once you have these details you can then trace the names by doing an online search or, in Scotland, you can contact Birthlink Family Care who hold adoption records and aims to put adopted people and their birth relatives in touch with each other, when both parties are happy for this to happen.

PLEASE NOTE: Rutherglen & Cambuslang Citizens Advice Bureau is available for telephone / e-mail advice. We are also open for drop in at our main office on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am until 3pm.