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A measure of earnings replacement for employees who are off work because of sickness. Employers are liable to pay this to all their employees who satisfy all the qualifying conditions when they are off work sick.
Important Note:
Work Pattern: Before entering your employee's dates of absence please first check that his working pattern has been entered correctly. To check the working pattern select Employee from the Tasking Zone then further select View/Edit Employee Details.
Then click on the 'View/Edit' link for the employee concerned. Next click on the 'View/Edit' button entitled Employees Work Pattern. The employee's allocated work pattern will be displayed. N stands for a non-working / non-qualifying day and Q stands for working / qualifying day. The pattern shown can be amended if required.
SSP1 (L) and Link Letter Setup: If your new employee gives you a SSP1 (L) form, you should enter its details. To enter the details, click on this link. SSP1 (L) is a record from a previous employer / contractor, which is issued on request to employees who have received SSP in the 8 weeks before they stop working for that employer / contractor.
Migration Users - Enter PIW Details: If you are migrating data from another payroll package to our system you may need to record the employee's PIW details before you start administrating their SSP for the first time. This only needs to be done once. To enter the PIW details click on this link.
If employees satisfy the following conditions, they will qualify for SSP:
In practice most employees who are absent from work because they're sick qualify. Part-time, casual and temporary employees can also get SSP as long as they meet the qualifying conditions.
Note - There is no time limit an employee has to be working for you before they become eligible for SSP. If a new employee satisfies all the conditions, SSP would be due.
Note - Employers / Contractors do not require medical evidence before paying SSP. If an employee satisfies all the conditions to receive SSP and the employer / contractor has no reason to doubt the incapacity, SSP can be paid without medical evidence.
SSP is only paid on those days your employee is contracted to work for you. These are known as Qualifying Days. SSP is not paid for Waiting Days, which are the first three Qualifying Days of the Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW). SSP is paid from the fourth Qualifying Day in a PIW. However, if the PIW links to an earlier PIW and the Waiting Days have been served, then SSP is paid from and including the first Qualifying Day of the second PIW.
For further advice and guidance on SSP from the HMRC, Click here.
You'll normally stop paying SSP when an employee comes back to work. But you may also need to stop paying SSP if:
You can read more about when an employee can be disqualified from getting SSP in the HMRC publication E14, 'Employer Help book for Statutory Sick Pay'.
If an employee stops being entitled to SSP:
This is the minimum level of earnings that employees need to qualify for benefits and for statutory payments such as SSP. It is also the minimum level that an employee's Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) must reach in a specific period for them to get SSP.
A period of sickness lasting at least four or more days in a row. All days of sickness count towards the total number of days in a PIW, even non-working days. If there are less than four consecutive days there is no PIW and you need take no action.
The only days you can
They are usually the days of the week your employee normally works; their contracted working days.
SSP is not payable for the first three QDs in a PIW. These are called Waiting Days (WDs). They are not always the first three days of sickness as the employee may have been sick on non QDs. Where PIWs are linked and all three WDs have been served in the first PIW, there will be no WDs in any later linked spells of sickness. But, if all three WDs have not been served in the first PIW, any remaining WDs must be served at the beginning of the next linked PIW or series of linked PIWs.
If your company does not want to pay SSP, nor claim any SSP back, but would rather pay your own sick pay amounts, you should not enter any absent dates in the SSP section. Instead, you should create a new item in the Absence Payment & Record Setup section, perhaps called Occupational Sick Pay, and enter your own amounts of sick pay here.
Please note any sick pay given instead of SSP must be equal to, or greater than, the SSP amount. SSP is the minimum level of sick pay all employers / contractors have a statutory duty to pay to their employees. To find out more on the current SSP rates Click here.
Once you have entered your company sick pay, you would then need to adjust the Basic Pay amounts as appropriate so the employee is paid Basic Pay only for the time when he/she was at work, and Occupational sick pay for when he/she was absent due to sickness. If sick pay is entered in this way then no amounts can be recovered from the HMRC. Only SSP entered and paid through the SSP section can qualify for possible recovery.
Employment and Support Allowance is a Social Security Benefit, that is paid because of an illness or disability. For more details on ESA Click here
Payrun > Payment Frequency (Weekly/Monthly/2 Weekly/4 Weekly/Quarterly/Annual/Bi-annual) > Other Payments > SSP Payment & Record
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory.
For example, If a monthly paid employee, who was paid £2000 a month, worked for 1 week then was off sick for 3 weeks. The 3 weeks sick absences would be entered in the SSP section. Then the employer / contractor could adjust his / her pay on the payrun page so that the employee was only paid for the 1 week that he / she actually worked i.e., £500 only.
When the Payrun is processed, the employee would receive a combination of 1 weeks pay of £500, plus 3 weeks SSP.
If you select this option, the employee's gross basic pay is reduced/offset by the amount of SSP he or she is eligible to receive. Use this if you still want to pay the employee their full pay as normal, but include the SSP as part of it, thus allowing the employee to receive the same net pay as usual.
For example, If an employee, who was normally paid £2000 a month, was off sick for 3 weeks and was entitled to receive £150 SSP, his/her gross basic pay would be automatically reduced to £1850. £1850 basic + £150 SPP = £2000 gross pay.
Note:
If you want to pay SSP only, with no basic pay, either of the 2 options can be selected, and in both, the Basic Pay should be set as Zero.
If Reduce Basic Pay by SSP amount is selected and the Basic pay is set as zero, the pay will not become a negative.
Before entering days of sickness, you should check that the employees work pattern is set up correctly. An employee's working pattern details the days of the week the employee is contracted to work for you. This needs to be set up because SSP is only paid on those days your employee is contracted to work for you. These are known as Qualifying Days.
Note:
SSP is not paid for Waiting Days, which are the first three Qualifying Days of the Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW). SSP is paid from the fourth Qualifying Day in a PIW. However, if the PIW links to an earlier PIW and the Waiting Days have been served, then SSP is paid from and including the first Qualifying Day of the second PIW.
To check what working pattern is set for your employees go to View/Edit Employee Details in the Employee section of the Tasking Zone. Then click on the View/Edit link in row of the employee concerned. Next click on the View/Edit button entitled Employees Work Pattern. The employee's allocated work pattern is displayed. N stands for non-working non-Qualifying Day and Q stands for working Qualifying Day. This pattern may be changed or replaced by clicking on the appropriate Add New Working Pattern button or Replace link.
We have pre-set some common working patterns for you. The patterns always run from Sunday to Saturday; for example, if the employee works Monday to Friday inclusive, the pattern would be NQQQQQN. You can use any of these pre-sets, or create your own to your own employees' requirements, whether full time or part time. Any number of different Working Patterns can be entered.
Once the Working Pattern has been checked, all dates of absence due to sickness should be entered in the payrun section. Click on the Enter link in the Other Pay Admin column, and then click on P5 SSP Record & Payment. Even if the employee is off work for just one day due to sickness, it should be recorded here.
In the Record Absence Period section, enter the dates on which the employee was absent due to sickness. You can enter individual days or a range of days. Use the calendar buttons to enter the From and To dates of the sickness period. To enter a single sick day, enter the date of the sick day in both the From and To fields
Please note, if you enter your employees' dates of absence due to sickness in the SSP section, this service will automatically calculate any SSP due to your employees, and if any SSP amount can be recovered this will automatically be shown on the Employer Payment Record - EPR.
Note: - If Sick Pay is entered elsewhere in this service, SSP will not be calculated and no SSP will be recovered.