Police Pay

Stress and PTSD in the Police:
Support and Sick Leave

If the job is affecting your mental health, confidential support is available now, and time off sick is treated like any other illness. This guide covers the signs, where to get help, sick leave and pay, occupational health and your rights at work (rules for England and Wales).

Looking for what PTSD can pay through an injury award or ill-health retirement? See police PTSD payouts: injury award and ill-health retirement.

Trust Notice: Independent explanatory guidance. Not medical advice. Call 999 in emergency.

Context

Cumulative trauma in policing is an occupational hazard, not a weakness.

Key Facts

  • Sick Pay: Mental health absence is covered by the same Annex K sick pay rules as any other illness: full pay for 6 months, then half pay for 6 months, over a rolling 12 months.
  • Injury Awards: A psychological injury received in the execution of duty can count for an injury award; ill-health retirement is a separate decision.
  • Support: Forces offer TRiM, counselling, and OH support. Accessing them is not misconduct, and confidential routes outside your force also exist.

Help works, and you do not have to wait until things are bad to use it. Some services, such as the Oscar Kilo crisis line, Samaritans and Police Care UK, are independent of your force. The support services directory explains who each one is for and what each says about confidentiality.

Trauma Exposure

Police officers are unique in that they run towards danger. This results in repeated exposure to traumatic events that would be rare for a civilian to witness even once.

Common Triggers

  • • Fatal road collisions
  • • Child abuse investigations
  • • Suicides and sudden deaths
  • • Violent assaults
  • • Threat to life

Cumulative Impact

It is not always "one big event". Trauma can build up over years (the "stress bucket"). "Cumulative trauma" is an everyday description, not a separate diagnosis: NICE recognises that PTSD can follow single, repeated or multiple events, including work-related exposure to trauma. Complex PTSD is a separate ICD-11 diagnosis that most commonly follows prolonged or repeated trauma, with added difficulties in managing emotions, self-worth and relationships.

What Is PTSD?

The NHS describes post-traumatic stress disorder as a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. It is not "being emotional", and it is treatable: the NHS says it usually gets better for most people. Symptoms can start straight after an event or many months, or even years, later.

Flashbacks
Reliving events
Avoidance
Numbing feelings
Hypervigilance
Always "on guard"
Sleep
Nightmares/Insomnia

When Stress Becomes Sickness

If symptoms affect your ability to perform operational duties, drive safely or exercise judgement, talk to your GP and to occupational health or your supervisor about sick leave or adjusted duties. This protects you and the public. Under Annex K, sick pay is full pay for 6 months then half pay for 6 months, counted back over 12 months, with chief officer discretion to extend.

Sick Pay Rights Guide

Ill-Health Retirement

If treatment does not resolve the condition, the police pension authority refers the medical questions to a selected medical practitioner (SMP). If the SMP finds you permanently unfit for the ordinary duties of a police officer, the authority may require you to retire or to continue to serve (Police Pensions Regulations 2015, regulations 81 and 82). Infirmity includes a mental disorder, so PTSD can be a ground.

Ill-Health Retirement Guide → Anxiety, depression and stress →

Injury Awards

An injury award is for someone who has left the force and is permanently disabled as a result of an injury received in the execution of duty, and injury includes disease of mind (Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006, regulation 11 and Schedule 1). Records linking your PTSD to specific incidents (e.g. "Incident X on Date Y") help. HMRC says police injury benefit can be paid tax-free. See also injured on duty: what to do.

PTSD: Injury Award and Ill-Health Retirement → Injury on duty awards →

Cultural Barriers

Many officers hide symptoms due to fear. That silence matters: it is part of why officer suicide risk and support remains such a critical, under-discussed area of welfare policy.

  • "I'll lose my firearms ticket": Not automatically. College of Policing guidance lets firearms officers ask to be temporarily stood down, without prejudice to their role, when medical or emotional stresses may affect critical decisions. Any decision on future issue is made case by case under force policy, with reasons recorded.
  • "I'll be blocked for promotion": We found nothing in the regulations or guidance we read that bars promotion because of a mental health condition. Long absence can affect timing, so ask your Federation rep how your force's process works.
  • "I'm weak": You are unwell, not weak. You wouldn't run on a broken leg, and a mental health condition deserves treatment in the same way.

Verify Your Position

Worried about money while you are off, or about medical retirement? These free tools show your own figures.

Sick Pay Calculator → Ill-Health Retirement Calculator →

Frequently Asked Questions

Can PTSD end a police career?

Not necessarily. The NHS says PTSD usually gets better for most people, and a diagnosis alone does not end a police career. If a selected medical practitioner decides the condition makes you permanently unfit for the ordinary duties of a police officer, the police pension authority may require you to retire on ill-health grounds or may require you to continue to serve (Police Pensions Regulations 2015, regulations 81 and 82).

Is stress treated as sickness under regulations?

A mental health absence is sick leave like any other. The Annex K sick pay determination makes no separate rule for mental health: full pay for 6 months, then half pay for 6 months, counted back over the previous 12 months, with chief officer discretion to extend.

Can I claim injury award for PTSD?

It can qualify. The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 define injury to include disease 'whether of body or of mind'. An injury award is for someone who has left the force and is permanently disabled as a result of an injury received without their own default in the execution of duty (regulation 11). A selected medical practitioner decides whether the disablement results from an injury on duty and its degree (regulation 30), so a condition is not a qualifying injury automatically. Records of specific incidents help.

Will firearms authority be removed?

Not automatically. College of Policing guidance says firearms officers can ask to be temporarily stood down, without prejudice to their role, where medical, emotional or other life stresses may affect critical decisions. If an officer declares something that may affect their fitness, they are not issued a firearm until it has been looked into, and the decision on future issue is made under force policy with reasons recorded. After an incident, authorisation should not be removed automatically.

Can I return to full duties after trauma?

Often, yes. NICE recommends trauma-focused CBT for PTSD, and EMDR for non-combat trauma, and the NHS says PTSD usually gets better for most people. A return is usually planned with occupational health, sometimes through recuperative or adjusted duties first. Each case is decided individually.

Related Resources

Guide Occupational Health Guide Ill-Health Retirement Guide Long-Term Sickness Guide Support Services Directory Guide TRiM & Post-Incident Support Guide Telling OH About Mental Health

Sources (read 30 September 2026)