20 days self-certification
We are the only staff absence insurance provider that allows schools to self-certify absences for up to four weeks
What is claims self-certification period?
Schools will be aware that a member of staff can self-certify their absence for 7 calendar days.
Under most insurance policies absences can only be self-certified for 5 working days. This often means that to verify any further days of absence, the school will require documentation from either, or sometimes even both, the absent employee and their doctor to make a successful claim.
We have the simplist claims process within the staff absence insurance market enabling schools to raise a claim with no documentation and instead simply logging the details online.
We know that gathering evidence to validate claims is often a difficult, frustrating and time-consuming process for schools. What's more, failure to submit documentation can often lead to claims being declined.
Our self-certification form only requests basic and easily accessible information, making it quick and simple to complete. We’ll then have everything we need to process your claim.
In 2020, 75% of all claims submitted by our schools were for absences lasting 20 working days or less. Under our new and improved policy terms, we would not require any supporting evidence or documentation to process these claims.
Frequently asked questions
Self-certification allows a member of staff to verify their absence without the need to retrieve and submit external documents such as a Doctor’s Report or Medical Certificate. Employees can self-certify their absence for a maximum of seven working days.
Yes. Our 2024 policy includes a 20 working day self-certification period as standard.
No other staff absence insurance provider allows members of staff to self-certify up to 20 working days of absence. Under most insurance policies, absences can only be self-certified for five working days, leaving the school as significant risk at not being able to provide the necessary documentation to make a claim.
Within our 2024 policy, we allow schools to self-certify absences* for up to 20 working days.
In the unfortunate event that a member of staff is absent from work, your school submits an insurance claim as normal. However, if the absence lasts 20 working days or less, we will not request supporting medical evidence to validate your claim. Instead, the absentee will be required to complete and return a very simple self-certificate form. We’ll then have everything we need to assess your claim.
The same as always. Simply submit the claim via your online client area here.
Once the claim is logged, we will send the relevant self-certificate form to your policy administrator.
There is no limit to the number of self-certification claims you can make. As long as the length of absence is less than 20 working days, staff will be able to self-certify their absence.
Yes. If you are contacting us from a trust of schools or cluster, we may be able to offer a longer self-certification period. If you’d like to discuss this further, please contact us by email at info@absenceprotection.co.uk or telephone on 0800 862 0077 and we’ll be happy to help you with this.
Should the absence claim exceed 20 working days, your school can proceed in one of two ways: a) cease the claim at 20 days with no need to submit support documentation to validate the claim, or b) provide any supporting documents we require to verify the period of absence.