1. What is the Sick Pay Guarantee?
The Victorian Sick Pay Guarantee is an Australian-first initiative giving Victorian casual and contract workers in certain jobs up to 38 hours a year of sick and carer’s pay. Payments are made at the national minimum wage.
The Sick Pay Guarantee is a pilot program. It ran from 14 March 2022 until 30 June 2024.
For more information see the Sick Pay Guarantee Program Guidelines.
2. What is the last date I will be eligible for sick and carer’s pay?
The Sick Pay Guarantee pilot program ended on 30 June 2024.
If you successfully signed up to the Sick Pay Guarantee by 2:00 pm on Tuesday 7 May 2024, you were eligible for sick and carer’s pay until Friday 31 May 2024.
This means the last date you could miss work and be eligible for the Sick Pay Guarantee was Friday 31 May 2024.
3. What is the last date I can submit a claim?
The last date you could submit was Sunday 30 June 2024.
All claims must have been submitted within 60 days of when you missed work and no later than 11:59 pm on Sunday 30 June 2024.
To view your claims, log in to your Service Victoria account.
4. I submitted a claim before 30 June. Will it be paid?
All claims submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday 30 June 2024 will be processed.
We will let you know the outcome of your claim via email. Remember to check both your email inbox and your spam folder.
If your claim is approved it will be paid.
5. I submitted a claim before 30 June. Can I still provide evidence to support my claim?
All claims submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday 30 June 2024 will be processed.
You may be asked to provide evidence to support your claim. Remember to check both your email inbox and your spam folder.
The timeframe to provide the evidence will depend on your circumstances.
6. Who was eligible?
The Sick Pay Guarantee was for eligible casual and contract workers who do not have paid annual, personal, sick or carer’s leave entitlements in any job.
About casual workers
A person is a casual worker if they accept a job offer from an employer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work.
Specifically, under the Fair Work Act, a person is a casual worker if:
- they are offered a job
- the offer does not include a firm advance commitment that the work will continue indefinitely with an agreed pattern of work
- they accept the offer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment and become an employee.
For more information, visit the Fair Work website.
About contract workers
Contract workers provide services under a contract and can work for more than one client at a time. Contract workers are also called self-employed workers, independent contractors, contractors or subcontractors.
For more information, visit the Fair Work website.
You were eligible to sign up if:
- you have the right to work in Australia
- you're 15 or older
- you go to work in Victoria
- you're working an average of 7.6 hours or more each week in at least one eligible job (see Eligible jobs)
- you do not have access to paid leave entitlements at any job.
You must be aged over 15 years. If you are under 18 years old you will need your parent or guardian to consent to the terms and conditions on your behalf.
For more information see the Program Guidelines.
7. Which jobs were included?
Jobs included in the Sick Pay Guarantee pilot were:
- Food, hospitality and accommodation
- Retail, sales and supermarkets
- Factories, manufacturing and supermarket supply chains
- Administration, clerical and call centres
- Cleaning and laundry
- Beauty, fitness, tourism and outdoor recreation
- Taxi, rideshare and delivery driving
- Security
- Carers, aides, health and welfare support
- Farm, agriculture, forestry, gardening and animal care
- Arts and creative industries.
The full list of eligible jobs is in the Program Guidelines.
8. What evidence do I need to provide when I make a claim?
When you submit a claim you must confirm that you missed work because you were sick or injured, or you were caring for someone who was sick or injured.
You may need to provide evidence to support your claim. The type of evidence will depend on your circumstances.
The following ID and proof of work documents are acceptable forms of evidence for the Sick Pay Guarantee.
You do not need to provide information about the household income or work status of your parents, partner or other household members.
9. Can I submit a statutory declaration form for proof of work?
You can use a statutory declaration to state where you work if you do not have any of the proof of work documents. An authorised person must witness your statutory declaration.
You will need to include the following details:
- your job title
- a declaration that you are self-employed or casually employed
- your recent average hours worked
- your ABN, or the ABN of your employer.
You can find statutory declaration forms and information about authorised on the Department of Justice and Community Safety website.
10. Can I submit a statutory declaration form for proof of absence?
To get a payment, we may ask you to show evidence to support your claim, such as a roster or an offer to work.
For claims of 15 hours or more, you must provide a medical certificate, absence from work certificate or carer's certificate. If you don’t have one of these documents you can use a statutory declaration. An authorised person must witness your statutory declaration.
For claims of 30.4 hours or more you must also provide a roster or offer to work.
The statutory declaration must contain a statement confirming you are missing work because:
- you are sick or injured, or
- you are caring for an immediate family or household member.
You can find statutory declaration forms and information about authorised on the Department of Justice and Community Safety website.
11. How much will I get paid?
The Sick Pay Guarantee provided casual and contract workers in certain jobs with up to 38 hours a year of sick and carer's pay.
Payments are made at the national minimum wage ($23.23 per hour as of 1 July 2023), regardless of whether you claim for a weekday, weekend or public holiday.
12. Do I have to pay the money back later?
No. You will not have to pay the money back.
There is no cost to you or your employer.
13. Do I have to report the payments in my tax return?
Sick Pay Guarantee payments are taxable if they are part of your income. Workers are encouraged to seek tax advice as it relates to your individual circumstances.
Find out more about income tax from the Australian Taxation Office.
14. Do payments impact my income support payment?
You should seek advice from Centrelink on whether claiming the Sick Pay Guarantee will impact your income support payment.
Find out more about Centrelink and income support payments from Services Australia.
15. How many hours can I claim at a time?
You can claim for a minimum of three hours and a maximum of 12 hours per day.
16. I do contract jobs, so I don’t have a roster. How can I prove that I missed work?
Submit your claim for the number of hours you were supposed to work in your contract job. If you need to submit evidence to support your claim, you can provide:
- a roster
- an offer of work, or
- a statutory declaration which includes your average hours worked.
Learn more about what evidence you need to support your claim.
Find out how to calculate your average hours.
17. How do I get help?
To get help, you can:
18. Where can I get information about the Worker Survey Prize Draw?
The Sick Pay Guarantee Worker Survey Prize Draw has been held.
Winners will be notified via email. Winners must reply to the email within 7 days to claim the prize.
See the full Terms and Conditions.
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