Yes. You accrue annual leave while on sick leave, at your normal rate, for as long as you are still employed — whether you are off for three days or three years. Sickness absence does not pause holiday accrual in the UK, and there is no point at which it stops.
This surprises employers more than employees, because it means someone who has been signed off for a full leave year still ends that year with 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday sitting untouched. The rules on what happens to that untaken leave are where the real detail lives.
Key Takeaways
- Holiday accrual continues throughout sickness absence. GOV.UK confirms workers “build up holiday entitlement while off work sick”.
- Where sickness prevents you taking it, you can carry over 4 weeks — the regulation 13 core, not the full 5.6.
- Carried-over sick-leave holiday must be used within 18 months of the end of the leave year it accrued in, then it lapses.
- Untaken statutory leave is paid out on termination, so it never simply disappears if employment ends.
Why Does Annual Leave Keep Accruing During Sick Leave?
Because statutory holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 attaches to the employment relationship, not to hours actually worked. If you are employed, you are accruing. Nothing in the Regulations makes accrual conditional on attendance.
The reasoning behind it, established through a long line of European and UK case law now retained in domestic law, is that paid annual leave exists so workers can rest and recuperate from work. A worker who is off sick has not had that rest — they have been ill. Letting sickness cancel the entitlement would defeat the purpose of the right.
The practical consequence is simple and often ignored: an employee absent for an entire leave year still ends it with a full statutory entitlement. Long-term absence does not reduce anyone’s holiday balance by a single day.
Does contractual holiday accrue too?
That depends on your contract. Statutory 5.6 weeks always accrues. Anything your employer gives above that — an extra week, service-based days, a birthday day off — is contractual, and the contract can lawfully say that accrual pauses after a set period of absence.
Read the sickness and holiday clauses together. A well-drafted policy will say something like “contractual holiday above the statutory minimum does not accrue after 26 weeks of continuous sickness absence”. If your policy is silent, the safe reading is that the full contractual entitlement accrues.
How Much Annual Leave Can You Carry Over From Sick Leave?
Four weeks. Regulation 13(15) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 is explicit:
“Where, as a result of taking a period of sick leave in any leave year, a worker is unable to take some or all of the annual leave to which the worker is entitled in that leave year under this regulation, the worker is entitled to carry forward such untaken leave into the following leave year provided it is taken by the end of the period of 18 months from the end of the leave year in which the entitlement originally arose.”
Read the words “under this regulation” carefully. Regulation 13 creates the 4-week core entitlement. The additional 1.6 weeks comes from regulation 13A, which this carry-over provision does not cover. So the statutory sickness carry-over right is 4 weeks, not 5.6.
Your employer can allow more. Many do, precisely to avoid the awkward conversation about which 1.6 weeks vanished. But 4 weeks is the floor.
When Does Carried-Over Leave Expire?
Eighteen months from the end of the leave year in which it accrued — not eighteen months from your return to work, and not eighteen months from the date it was carried over.
Here is the mechanic worked through.
Dan’s leave year runs 1 April to 31 March. He is signed off from June 2026 and returns in May 2027.
| Step | Detail |
|---|---|
| Leave year in question | 1 Apr 2026 – 31 Mar 2027 |
| Statutory entitlement accrued | 5.6 weeks (28 days on a 5-day week) |
| Days actually taken | 0 |
| Carried into 2027/28 under reg 13(15) | 4 weeks = 20 days |
| Deadline to use those 20 days | 18 months from 31 Mar 2027 = 30 September 2028 |
| The remaining 8 days | Lapse, unless the contract or the employer says otherwise |
Dan therefore has a long runway — but not an unlimited one, and 8 of his 28 days were never protected in the first place. If you manage people returning from long absences, that distinction is the one worth putting in writing.
What Happens to the Leave If Employment Ends?
It gets paid. Untaken statutory annual leave accrued in the current leave year, plus any leave validly carried over, must be paid in lieu when employment ends. This applies however the employment ends — resignation, capability dismissal after long-term sickness, or redundancy.
That payment is calculated on a week’s pay, not on Statutory Sick Pay. Someone who has been on SSP of £123.25 a week for months is still entitled to holiday pay at their normal rate for the accrued days, because holiday pay and sick pay are different things. Our guide to holiday pay calculation in the UK walks through the reference-period method.
If the exit is a redundancy, the same rules apply on top of the redundancy package — see annual leave and redundancy in the UK.
Does Sick Pay Change Any of This?
No, and the two should not be conflated. Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, or 80% of average weekly earnings if that is lower, for the 2026/27 tax year, payable for up to 28 weeks (GOV.UK). From 6 April 2026 it is payable from the first qualifying day of absence and no longer depends on earning above the Lower Earnings Limit.
Whether you are receiving SSP, company sick pay, or nothing at all, your annual leave accrues identically. Running out of sick pay does not stop the accrual clock.
What This Means for You
Three actions, whichever side of the table you are on.
- Record accrual during absence, not after it. The overwhelming majority of disputes come from a system that quietly stopped accruing, not from a disagreement about the law.
- Label carried-over days with their expiry date. “20 days carried, expires 30 Sep 2028” prevents both the employee losing them and the employer paying for days that had already lapsed.
- Split statutory from contractual on the balance sheet. Only the 4-week core carries the statutory protection. If you cannot see the split, you cannot apply the rule.
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This article is general information, not legal advice. Statutory entitlements described are correct as at July 2026; check GOV.UK or take advice for your specific circumstances.