When does your pay drop to half?
Everyone is told "six months full, six months half". Almost nobody is told it runs on a rolling 12-month lookback — which is why officers are caught out by a drop that arrives earlier than they expected.
Updated 11 October 2026
When do you go on to half pay?
Police sick pay is not a clean six months. It is assessed over a rolling 12-month window, so absences from earlier in the year still count against you — and then drop back out as time passes. This works the dates out properly.
None added. If you have had no other sickness in the past 12 months, leave this empty.
Why "six months" isn't six months
Two weeks off in March and a month off in July both count against the same 183-day allowance as the absence you are on now. They are not separate entitlements.
As time passes, old absences fall out of the back of the 12-month window and stop counting. A drop that looked imminent can move further away.
Chief officers can extend full pay. It is not automatic and it is not applied for you — which is the single most common reason officers miss out on it.
If half pay is coming
Get your absence record from HR in writing
Payroll works from their record, not your memory. Errors in recorded dates are common and are far easier to challenge before the drop than after it.
Ask about discretion early
Your Federation representative can raise an application to extend full pay. Doing it in the month before the drop is far more effective than appealing afterwards.
Check whether this is duty-related
If your absence stems from an injury received on duty, different considerations apply — and there are separate routes, assessed under different regulations, that may matter far more to you financially than the sick pay question itself.
If this is a duty injury
Injury award, ill-health pension, CICA or civil claim?
Four separate systems, routinely confused — and an injury award is tax-free, index-linked and paid for life.
Common questions
When do police officers go on to half pay?
Generally after 183 days — six months — of cumulative sickness within a rolling 12-month period, followed by a further six months at half pay. The critical word is cumulative: it is not six unbroken months from the day your current absence started. Absences earlier in the same 12-month window count towards the total.
Why is it a 'rolling' 12 months and not a calendar year?
Because the entitlement is assessed by looking back over the previous 12 months from any given day, not by resetting each January or on your service anniversary. That has two consequences. Earlier absences pull your half-pay date forward. But as those earlier days pass out of the back of the 12-month window, they stop counting — which can push your half-pay date later again. That moving window is why a simple 'six months from now' calculation is usually wrong.
Can the force extend my full pay?
Yes. Chief officers have discretion to extend full pay in exceptional circumstances, and it is commonly exercised where the sickness is injury-on-duty related or where an officer is close to returning. Discretion is not automatic — it has to be applied for and considered, so speak to your Federation representative early rather than waiting for the drop to land.
Does half pay reduce my pension?
In the CARE 2015 scheme, pension accrual is based on the pay you actually receive, so a period on half pay builds up less pension for those months. You remain an active member of the scheme throughout, and the effect is limited to the period itself rather than reducing what you have already built up.
Is injury on duty treated differently?
It can be. Where sickness results from an injury received in the execution of duty, forces frequently apply discretion differently, and a longer-term duty injury may also open up entirely separate questions around injury awards and ill-health retirement. Those are assessed under different regulations from sick pay.
Does this calculator use my force's actual records?
No. It models the standard regulations using the dates you enter, entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere or stored. Your force's HR record is the authoritative source, and if the two disagree, theirs is the one that determines your pay.