Get a Sick Note for Depression
Depression is a clinically recognised condition and a valid reason to take time off work, issued by a UK GP with full sensitivity and confidentiality.
You should not have to sit in a waiting room to get the documentation you need. Get a signed GP sick note. No appointment needed.
✔ Depression, low mood, major depressive disorder and related conditions all covered.
✔ Treated with full clinical sensitivity and confidentiality.
✔ Most approved same day, or by 9am the next morning. From £47.
✔ Full refund if the GP cannot issue.
GET STARTED 
Accepted by most UK employers, universities and insurers, subject to their own policies. All consultations are subject to clinical assessment and certificates are issued only where clinically appropriate.
Need ongoing support documentation? See also our sick note to give your employer, mental health support letter and stress leave certificate.
Get your medical certificate delivered straight to your inbox from £47
How It Works
Complete short online consult
No appointment required.
Complete a short medical questionnaire and upload any supporting evidence.
Doctor reviews your evidence
A GMC-registered doctor reviews your submission individually.
✔ Full refund if a certificate cannot be issued.
Receive your certificate
Most certificates are issued same day, almost all by 9AM the next morning. Delivered as a signed PDF. A doctor will email you if more evidence is needed.
Certificate security
Every MedicalCert certificate can be checked as genuine
Each certificate is issued with anti-tampering protection and its own verification reference. If your employer, university, airline or insurer wants to confirm the document came from a GMC-registered doctor, they can check it against MedicalCert records. Altered or copied documents do not pass that check.
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If you need help now
A sick note is not urgent care. If you are struggling to keep yourself safe, or you are worried about someone else, please get support straight away.
Samaritans: call 116 123, free, any time of day or night.
NHS 111: call 111 and select the mental health option, which is option 2, to speak to a trained mental health professional. It is free and open day and night. NHS 111 is not an emergency service.
Shout: text SHOUT to 85258 for free confidential support by text message.
In an emergency, or if someone is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E.
Sick Note for Depression
Depression is one of the most common reasons for time off work in the UK. HSE figures show that work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 22.1 million working days lost in 2024/25, more than any other cause of days lost to work-related ill health. Those figures count only illness caused or made worse by work, so they do not cover every case of depression. A sick note for work for depression is a medical document from a GMC-registered doctor confirming that your depression is affecting your ability to work and certifying a period of absence.
MedicalCert issues depression sick notes through GMC-registered UK doctors, most approved same day, with no GP appointment needed. For sick pay purposes, absence caused by depression is treated the same way as absence caused by physical illness. Acceptance of a private certificate remains a matter for your employer's own absence policy.
For general guidance on mental health sick notes, including the 7-day rule, sick pay entitlement, your legal rights, and what the certificate contains, see our mental health sick note guide. This page covers what is specific to depression.
GMC-registered doctors | Most approved same day | Full refund if we cannot issue
Depression Symptoms That Affect Fitness for Work
A sick note is issued based on how your symptoms impact your ability to work, not on a formal diagnosis alone. Depression affects people very differently. The following are common functional impairments a doctor considers when assessing your case:
Sustained depressive mood making it very difficult to engage with work tasks, colleagues, or professional responsibilities.
Difficulty concentrating, poor memory, slow thinking, or difficulty making decisions, particularly limiting in roles requiring sustained focus or judgement.
Insomnia or hypersomnia, and persistent exhaustion that affects attendance or the safe performance of work duties.
Depression severe enough to make leaving the house, commuting, or functioning in a social or workplace environment very hard.
Loss of interest in work and daily activities, and difficulty starting or completing tasks that were previously manageable.
Headaches, appetite changes, psychomotor agitation or slowing, and physical exhaustion linked to depression.
Symptoms that need urgent support, not a sick note
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, feel unable to keep yourself safe, or things feel unmanageable right now, please speak to someone today rather than waiting for a certificate.
Call Samaritans on 116 123 at any time, call 111 and choose the mental health option, which is option 2, or text SHOUT to 85258. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E.
How Long Can You Be Signed Off Work with Depression?
You can self-certify the first 7 calendar days of absence for depression, including weekends and bank holidays. From day 8 your employer can require written medical evidence. There is no legal maximum on the total time you can be signed off, and Statutory Sick Pay runs for up to 28 weeks.
There is no standard length of absence for depression. Recovery varies widely between individuals and cannot be predicted in advance. The length of any certificate is a clinical judgement made for you as an individual, and it is reviewed and extended as your situation changes rather than fixed at the start.
The table below sets out how severity and pattern are commonly described in UK clinical practice. NICE guideline NG222 on depression in adults groups a new episode into two categories only, less severe depression and more severe depression. The remaining rows describe patterns clinicians see in practice rather than NG222 categories. The table is included to explain what a doctor weighs up. It is not a prediction of how long you personally will be off work, and it should not be read as a timetable for your recovery.
| How the picture is commonly described | How certification is usually approached | What the doctor considers |
|---|---|---|
| Less severe depression | Short initial certificate, reviewed before it expires | Low mood and fatigue present, with some capacity for limited duties. A return may be possible with adjustments such as reduced hours or working from home. Some people do not need time off at all. |
| More severe depression | Certification with regular clinical review, extended only while symptoms justify it | Significant effects on concentration, sleep, and daily functioning that make full duties difficult. A phased return is often considered as symptoms improve. |
| Depression with significant functional impact | Ongoing certification alongside active treatment and review | Difficulty leaving home or managing self-care, or concerns about safety. Anyone with thoughts of self-harm or suicide needs urgent support, not only a certificate. Longer absences may bring Equality Act protections into play. |
| Recurrent depression | Each episode certified and assessed on its own | A pattern of episodic absence with recovery in between. Reasonable adjustments on return are often discussed to reduce the chance of relapse. |
Statutory Sick Pay is available for up to 28 weeks of certified absence. Each MedicalCert sick note currently covers up to 14 days, with follow-up notes issued as needed. This does not affect Statutory Sick Pay entitlement where the eligibility criteria are met. If your absence is likely to be lengthy, your own GP and, where available, occupational health should be involved in your care.
Can a Sick Note for Depression Be Backdated?
Yes. A certificate can carry dates earlier than the day it is issued where the doctor is satisfied you were unfit for work during that period. GOV.UK guidance confirms a statement may need to include dates earlier than the date of the statement. It cannot be given a future start date.
Backdating is a clinical judgement, not an administrative favour. The doctor has to be able to assess, from your account and any supporting evidence, that your depression affected your fitness for work across the dates in question. The further back the request reaches, the more supporting detail is usually needed.
This matters when depression has kept you from dealing with paperwork. Many people do not seek a certificate until an absence has already run for some time, and a certificate issued today can still record that earlier period. Source: GOV.UK guidance for healthcare professionals.
Sick Pay for Depression: Current SSP Rules
If you are signed off with depression, you are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in the same way as for any physical illness, provided you meet the eligibility criteria.
Current SSP entitlement (from April 2026)
Day-one payment. SSP is payable from your first day of absence. The previous three waiting days have been abolished.
Lower earnings limit removed. Employees qualify for SSP regardless of how much they earn, including part-time and zero-hours contract workers who previously did not, provided the other SSP conditions are met.
Current rate. £123.25 per week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks of certified absence.
Enhanced company sick pay. Your employer may offer contractual sick pay above the SSP minimum. Check your employment contract or staff handbook. SSP is the legal floor, not the ceiling.
For the most current SSP eligibility rules, see GOV.UK Statutory Sick Pay.
Your Legal Rights: Depression and Sick Leave
Key legal protections
Sick pay and absence: Absence caused by a mental health condition attracts the same sick pay rights as absence caused by physical illness. An employee dismissed, disciplined, or disadvantaged because of certified sickness absence may, depending on the facts, have a claim for unfair dismissal or disability discrimination. Whether a claim succeeds depends on the individual circumstances, so take advice from ACAS or an employment adviser.
Equality Act 2010: Under section 6, you are disabled if a mental impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Schedule 1 treats an effect as long term if it has lasted at least 12 months, is likely to last at least 12 months, or is likely to last for the rest of your life, and an effect that has stopped still counts if it is likely to recur. Depression often meets this test, but not always, and it is decided on the facts of each case. Where the test is met, your employer must not discriminate against you because of your condition and has a duty to make reasonable adjustments. That adjustments duty does not apply where the employer does not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that you are disabled and likely to be put at a substantial disadvantage, so what your employer is told, by you or through occupational health, matters in practice.
Evidence of sickness: There is no law requiring an employer to accept any particular form of medical evidence. Employers set their own rules on what evidence they need and when, and NHS fit notes and private certificates are both commonly accepted. Check your absence policy or ask HR before you buy anything.
Confidentiality: Under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, your employer cannot obtain a report from a doctor who is or has been responsible for your clinical care, such as your own GP, without your consent, and you can say when you give that consent that you want to see the report before it is sent. An occupational health assessment by a doctor who has not been responsible for your care sits outside that Act, but it still needs your agreement and is covered by data protection law. You are not required to share clinical detail beyond what appears on the sick note itself, and you can choose how much to tell your line manager, HR, or colleagues.
Employer contact during absence: Employers can keep in reasonable contact while you are off. ACAS good practice guidance says contact should be sensitive, agreed where possible, and not excessive, particularly where the reason for absence is mental health. ACAS guidance is not itself law, but tribunals can take it into account. If contact is causing you distress, tell your employer in writing what frequency and method work for you, and take advice from ACAS if it continues.
Returning to Work: Reasonable Adjustments for Depression
A sick note for depression can include recommendations for workplace adjustments to support a safe return. Those recommendations are advice for your employer to consider, not instructions they are bound by. If your depression meets the Equality Act disability threshold, and your employer knows or could reasonably be expected to know about it, they have a duty to make reasonable adjustments. Common adjustments for depression include:
What counts as reasonable depends on the size and resources of the employer and the practical effect of the adjustment, so not every request has to be agreed. If you need documentation focused on workplace modifications rather than absence, a work adjustment certificate provides more detailed clinical framing for adjustment requests than a standard sick note.
Depression Sick Note FAQs
Most approved same day | Full refund if we cannot issue
Legislation and Guidance Referenced
The clinical, legal, and employment information on this page is drawn from the following authoritative UK sources:
📚 Referenced sources
- 🩺 NICE guideline NG222, Depression in adults: treatment and management: severity descriptions, treatment and review principles. nice.org.uk/guidance/ng222
- 📊 HSE, working days lost in Great Britain: 22.1 million working days lost to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25. hse.gov.uk/statistics/dayslost.htm
- ⚖️ Equality Act 2010, GOV.UK: disability definition and the employer duty to make reasonable adjustments. gov.uk/equality-act-2010-guidance
- 💰 Statutory Sick Pay, GOV.UK: current rate £123.25/week, or 80% of average weekly earnings where lower, payable from day one of absence following the April 2026 reform. gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay
- 💼 ACAS, mental health at work: good practice guidance on managing absence, keeping in contact, and return to work. acas.org.uk/supporting-mental-health-workplace
- 📋 Fit notes, GOV.UK: who can issue a fit note and how employers use them as evidence of sickness. gov.uk/government/collections/fit-note
- 🩺 General Medical Council (GMC): registers and regulates all doctors practising in the UK. All MedicalCert reviewing GPs hold active GMC registration. gmc-uk.org
