An employee has been off sick for several months and the leave year is about to end. Their holiday balance is still growing, but nobody has agreed what can be taken now, what must carry over or when it will expire. Sickness and annual leave are separate rights. A reliable process keeps those records separate, gives the worker clear choices and prevents a large balance becoming a dispute at year end or on termination.
Holiday continues to accrue during sickness absence
Workers continue to build up statutory holiday while absent because of sickness or injury. That applies during short and long absences. The balance should therefore be updated in the same way as if the person were working, subject to the correct rules for their working pattern. Stopping accrual because sick pay has ended, or because the absence is unpaid, is not the right approach.
For a regular-hours worker employed throughout the leave year, the statutory minimum is normally 5.6 weeks. Contractual holiday above that minimum can have different rules, so check the employment contract and holiday policy. Do not treat the statutory and enhanced elements as one undifferentiated balance when deciding what can carry forward.
Irregular-hours and part-year workers have specific accrual rules, including calculations for periods of sickness. Identify the worker category before using a standard full-time calculation. Acas expressly flags this as a separate regime, so a payroll assumption based only on days absent can produce the wrong answer.
Acas: sickness and statutory leave ↗ · Related guide: holiday-pay records →
A worker can request holiday while they are off sick
A worker may ask to use paid annual leave during sick leave. They might be medically unfit for work but able to travel, want a break that supports recovery, or need holiday pay after contractual or statutory sick pay has reduced or ended. The request should be handled under the normal holiday procedure, with the worker's health and the reason for the request considered fairly.
The choice belongs to the worker: Acas says an employer cannot force someone to take holiday while they are off sick. If the request is approved, sick leave can pause for the agreed holiday dates, holiday pay is due for that period, and sick leave can resume afterwards if the person remains unfit for work.
Confirm the dates and status in writing. A manager, payroll and the worker should all be able to see which days count as sickness and which count as annual leave. That avoids paying the wrong amount, deducting the wrong balance or assuming that a holiday request proves the employee is fit to return to work.
If sickness interrupts booked annual leave
A worker who becomes sick before or during booked holiday can ask for the affected time to count as sick leave instead. They must report the sickness to the employer if they want the holiday restored. Apply the usual notification and evidence rules fairly, including any self-certification or fit-note requirements that would have applied had the sickness started on an ordinary working day.
Where the absence qualifies, the worker can retain the affected holiday to take later and may receive sick pay for the sickness period if they meet the relevant conditions. Do not leave the booking recorded as both sickness and holiday. Update the absence record, annual-leave balance and payroll treatment together, then confirm the change to the worker.
The policy should explain who must be contacted, by when, what evidence is needed and how overseas illness will be handled. Consistency matters, but a rigid rule should not prevent reasonable consideration where illness, hospital treatment or another genuine obstacle made immediate reporting difficult.
Align sickness, holiday and payroll before the balance drifts.
HR + SAFETY can help North East SMEs check entitlement, prepare a clear employee letter and set a workable recording process for long-term absence.
Discuss a sickness and holiday caseCarry-over after long-term sickness
If long-term sickness prevents a worker from using their statutory holiday, they can carry over up to four weeks of unused entitlement. Acas says that carried-over leave must be used within 18 months starting from the end of the leave year in which it accrued. For a regular-hours worker entitled to 28 statutory days, GOV.UK expresses the sickness carry-over as up to 20 days.
That does not mean every absent worker automatically banks four weeks. Review what leave was actually untaken and whether there was enough time after a return to use it. Then separate any contractual entitlement above the statutory minimum and apply the contract's carry-over terms to that additional leave.
Record the source leave year, amount carried, expiry date and any leave subsequently used. Tell the worker clearly. A single balance with no expiry trail makes it difficult to show which days remain protected and which contractual days have lapsed.
Acas: carrying over holiday ↗ · GOV.UK: calculating leave entitlement ↗
Manager checklist before the leave year closes
Legal requirements and official guidance were checked on 6 October 2026. The practical control is a clear audit trail: entitlement, status of each day, pay basis, carried amount and expiry date should agree across HR records, the booking system and payroll.
- Confirm the worker's leave year, working pattern and statutory entitlement.
- Update accrual throughout the sickness absence, even where sick pay has ended.
- Separate statutory holiday from any additional contractual entitlement.
- Check whether the worker wants to request annual leave during the absence; do not impose it.
- Record approved holiday and sickness as distinct periods and align payroll treatment.
- Reclassify booked holiday when qualifying sickness is properly reported.
- Calculate the untaken statutory leave that sickness prevented the worker from using.
- Record the source year and 18-month deadline for any four-week sickness carry-over.
- Explain the balance and expiry dates to the worker in writing.
- Review the position before termination so accrued and carried leave can be calculated accurately.
Sickness absence does not freeze holiday entitlement. Keep accruing the correct leave, let the worker choose whether to request holiday during sickness, restore qualifying holiday interrupted by illness and identify protected carry-over before the leave year closes. Clear written dates and balances prevent most disputes.
This guide provides general information for UK employers. It is not legal advice and should not replace advice based on the facts of a specific matter.