Work and cancer

Cancer can cause changes in many areas of your life. One of these may be your work life. How cancer affects your work can depend on different things, such as:

• the type of cancer and its stage
• your treatment and its side effects
• your finances
• any practical support you have.

You may need time off work to have tests, appointments and treatments. You may also need time to cope with your feelings. For example, if you feel anxious, shocked or upset.

Some people stop working during cancer treatment and for a while after until they feel ready to go back. Others carry on working, perhaps with reduced hours or changes to their job.

We cannot cover every situation, so it is important to know who to contact at your workplace for the right advice.

If you have cancer, the law considers this a disability. This means you cannot be treated less favourably than people who do not have cancer because you have cancer.

You also cannot be treated less favourably for reasons connected to the cancer. That would be discrimination.

There are laws that protect you from being discriminated against at work because of cancer. If you live in:

• England, Scotland or Wales, the Equality Act 2010 protects you
• Northern Ireland, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 protects you.

These laws do not just protect employees. They also protect people who are:

• classified as workers – for example, people who work for an agency
• applying for jobs
• self-employed – this is on a case-by-case basis.

The legal protection against discrimination does not end when your cancer treatment finishes. If you have been diagnosed with cancer in the past, you will continue to have legal protection against discrimination even if you no longer have cancer.

You will also have protection if you move to another employer. We have more information about finding a new job.

We have more information about cancer and employment rights if you are employed or self-employed.

Carers are also protected from some types of discrimination. We have more information about cancer and employment rights as a carer.

There are different ways your employer can support you at work during treatment or when you return to work. Most employers understand that it is a stressful time and try to be helpful.

Employers may make changes to your workplace or working arrangements that allow you to keep working or return to work. They may change certain parts of your job so you can stay at work. This is called a reasonable adjustment.

There are also other ways your employer may be able to support you. They can tell you:

• about different policies
• whether there is an occupational health service or an employee assistance programme (EAP)
• about useful organisations that could help you.

It can be helpful to have regular meetings with your manager. You can talk about how to manage any problems, or other changes they can make to help you.

Your employer can access Macmillan at Work. It offers training and resources for employers, to help them better support employees living with or affected by cancer.

Access to Work is a government scheme. It offers grants and advice to help employees with a disability or health condition keep working. You can contact the scheme either as an employer or employee.

Examples of what the scheme may pay for include:

• special aids and equipment you need in the workplace
• travel to work if you cannot use public transport
• a support worker to help you in the workplace.

Visit the Access to Work website for more information about the scheme in England, Scotland and Wales.

Visit the NI Direct website for more information about the scheme in Northern Ireland.

You may need to take time off for appointments and treatment. You do not have a legal right to paid time off for things like medical appointments unless your employment contract specifically states this. But if you talk to your employer as soon as possible, you can both agree on what to do.

Your manager or HR manager can give you information about the sickness policy and other options. They can explain if different types of leave are paid or unpaid, and what you are entitled to.

In addition to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Occupational or company sick pay (above), you may be able get other types of financial help if cancer affects your ability to work:

• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is for people under State Pension age who have an illness or disability that affects how much they can work.
• Universal Credit (UC) is a benefit for people under State Pension age who are either not working – for example, because of an illness or caring responsibilities or on a low income.
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a benefit for people aged 16 to State Pension age. It is for people who have problems with daily living or moving around. You must have had these problems for 3 months and expect them to last for at least 9 months. This is unless you are terminally ill.

If you are self-employed, there are a number of benefits you may be able to get:

• Universal Credit
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

You can call our welfare rights advisers and financial guides on 0808 808 00 00 for free. They are trained to help you to claim any benefits you may be eligible for.

There are some other ways you may be able to get help with money:

• Loans and grants — if you need financial help, there are many grants and loans available from local and national organisations.
• Insurance — you, or your partner if you have one, may have insurance policies that will pay out because of your situation.
• Pension lump sum — if you have a private pension, you may be able to take some of this money out early.
• Break from payments — your insurer or financial adviser can give you advice about any life insurance policies or pension plans you have. You may be able to take a break from payments.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.