Many employers will have policies on the payment of sick pay which limit the payment of either full pay or half pay to a certain period. Typically those off sick for a long period who have exhausted their entitlement to sick pay are more likely to be disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995.
Although employers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to assist their disabled employees to return to work, they will not normally be expected as a reasonable adjustment to make payments in excess of the normal entitlement set out in the employer's sickness policy. The potential cost of such an adjustment would be too high and this alone should be enough to justify the fact that a disabled employee suffers a detriment when compared to non-disabled employees in relation to non-payment of sick pay for prolonged absence. The purpose of reasonable adjustments is to assist the employee to return to work, not to ease the financial burden of employees who, even for legitimate reasons, are unable to work.