Sickness absence trigger points
The thresholds UK employers actually use, the absences that must never count towards them, and why the conversation matters more than the number.
A trigger point is the level of absence that starts a supportive conversation - not a disciplinary one. The most common UK triggers are 3 separate absences in a rolling 3 months, 4 in 6 months, or 8-10 total days in 12 months, often alongside a Bradford Factor (or work out a score with the Bradford Factor calculator) score. None of them are set in law: you choose, publish, and apply them consistently.
What are absence trigger points?
Trigger points are thresholds written into an absence policy that tell managers when to stop and look at a pattern. The value isn't the number - it's that the same number applies to everyone, so nobody is picked on and nobody is quietly ignored.
There is no statutory trigger. Employers set their own, and are expected to apply them fairly and with discretion for the circumstances behind the absence.
What trigger points do UK employers actually use?
| Trigger | Typical threshold | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Separate occasions, short window | 3 in a rolling 3 months | informal supportive chat |
| Separate occasions, longer window | 4 in a rolling 6 months | formal absence review meeting |
| Total days | 8-10 days in 12 months | absence review, look for a cause |
| Bradford Factor score | 50 informal / 200 review / 400 escalate | follows the same ladder |
| Any single long absence | 4+ weeks continuous | long-term absence process, not triggers |
Note the last row: trigger points are a short-term-absence tool. A single long illness shouldn't hit a "too many days" trigger and land someone in a review meeting for having pneumonia.
What must never count towards a trigger?
This is where policies get employers into trouble. Absences that must be excluded or handled with care include:
- Pregnancy-related sickness - counting it is automatic pregnancy discrimination.
- Disability-related absence - discounting it, or raising the threshold, is often a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.
- Statutory leave - family leave, carer's leave, time off for dependants and jury service aren't sickness.
- Industrial injury or workplace-caused absence - most policies exclude it, and counting it looks punitive.
The full breakdown is in Bradford Factor exclusions - the same exclusions apply to any trigger scheme.
What should happen when someone hits a trigger?
- Meet, don't write first. A trigger is a prompt to ask "how are you, and is something going on we should know about?"
- Look for the cause. Repeated Monday absences might be a rota problem, a caring responsibility, or a health condition nobody's mentioned yet.
- Agree something concrete. An adjustment, an occupational health referral, a change of pattern - or simply a note that there's no pattern to worry about.
- Only then consider formality. Capability processes come later and follow their own fair steps - see capability vs conduct.
How do you write triggers into a policy?
Say the thresholds plainly, say what happens at each, say what's excluded, and say that managers may exercise discretion for individual circumstances. Publish it - a trigger nobody knew about feels like a trap the first time it's used. Then hold managers to applying it evenly, because inconsistent application is what turns a reasonable policy into a discrimination claim.
Every return from absence should also include a proper conversation - the return-to-work questions are the practical companion to any trigger scheme, and day-one SSP since April 2026 means short absences now carry a direct cost worth understanding.
Do any trigger points have legal status?
None. There is no statutory trigger point, no legally mandated score, and - contrary to a fair amount of published advice - Acas publishes no numbers either. Its guidance on absence trigger points says employers "should set this out clearly in an absence policy", covering what the review points are, how reaching one is flagged and that it starts a review. It gives no figures at all, and never mentions the Bradford Factor.
That leaves the numbers entirely to you - which is precisely why published scales vary so much. Checked in August 2026, the point at which widely-used sources suggest a first formal step ranged from 45 to 51, and the point at which they raise dismissal ranged from 500 to 900. The full comparison is in the Bradford Factor guide.
Practically: pick figures you can justify, write them down, publish them, and apply them the same way for everyone. A threshold nobody knew about feels like a trap the first time it is used, and an inconsistently applied one is the raw material of a discrimination claim.
Should day-one sick pay change your triggers?
It should at least prompt a review. Since 6 April 2026 Statutory Sick Pay has been payable from the first day of absence, with no waiting days and no earnings threshold. Short absences that were previously unpaid were frequently unrecorded too; now each one leaves a payroll trail, so it gets logged.
The effect on any frequency-based trigger is immediate: measured occasions rise without anyone's behaviour changing. If your thresholds were set before April 2026, they are now effectively tighter than you intended - compare this year's distribution against last year's before you escalate anybody.
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Patterns you can see, fairly
CoDash scores absence automatically with exclusions built in, flags triggers to managers, and prompts the return-to-work conversation every time.