Statutory sick pay is paid to employees who are unable to work due to sickness or illness. It is the minimum statutory requirement that employers must pay to their employee and is separate to any company sick policy that may be in place.
You can read more about SSP eligibility on the HMRC website.
NOTE: Unlike SMP, you are no longer able to reclaim for SSP.
Paying SSP within the pay run
You can pay SSP by following these steps:
- From within a pay run, click on the employee you wish to pay SSP for, then click 'Actions' > 'Pay Statutory Leave'.
- You will now see the statutory leave context panel. Select 'Statutory Sick Pay' from the drop down at the top of the context panel.
- Select the 'From' and 'To' dates for the total SSP period. NOTE - these dates will default to the first and last date of the current pay period. The from and to dates should be inclusive of waiting days (see below for more details on waiting days).
- If you wish to override the average weekly earnings value, you can tick the 'Average weekly earnings' check box and enter in an alternate average weekly earnings value.
- Enter the 'Waiting days' for this SSP period. The default waiting days are 3 (see below for more details on waiting days).
- Select the 'Qualifying days' for this SSP period. Qualifying days should be set to the days your employee normally works. These are populated by default, based on the employees pay run defaults and their 'advanced working hours' if they're provided.
- Once you've entered the SSP period details, click 'Calculate'
- If the employee is eligible for SSP, you'll see the amount of SSP the employee is entitled to for the current period.
- If the employee is not eligible for SSP, you'll see the reason they're not eligible for SSP.
- Click the 'Apply' button to save the SSP record and apply it to the pay run.
SSP Log
When entering SSP in the pay run, you can click "view log" after you've calculated the SSP values to get more information on how the SSP values were calculated. Key data that can be viewed in the log are:
- Earnings over that period.
- The calculation to confirm the average weekly earnings (AWE).
- Confirmation that Ben qualifies for SSP.
- The waiting days applied.
- The qualifying days applied.
Linking SSP periods
SSP periods can be linked should an employee be off sick again for more than 4 consecutive days within a period of eight weeks from a previous SSP period. When SSP periods are linked, it means that the employee will not have 3 waiting days for SSP to be applied.
SSP periods are automatically linked within the system.
Employee Not Entitled to SSP
In cases where you have an employee that isn’t entitled to SSP, you need to issue an SSP1 form. You can indicate that an employee is not entitled to SSP by following these steps:
- Select the "choose not to pay SSP" option once you've clicked "calculate".
- Enter the reason for not paying SSP from the drop down list.
- Click 'Apply; to save and apply this SSP period to the pay run.
Once this has been applied in the pay run it will show that no SSP has been paid.
Once the pay run has been finalised if you then go into 'Employee Details' > 'Leave Balances' and a link in to the SSP1 form will be dispalyed for the relevant SSP period.
Top Tips
- If you are transferring your payroll from another system and you have an employee currently off sick you can override the waiting days in the pay run to 0.
- You also have the option to override the average weekly earnings in the pay run as well.
- If your employee has reached the cap of 28 weeks SSP you will be unable to pay any more SSP and will be given a warning in the SSP log.
- You can utilise the 'Employee Details' > 'Documents' to store any sick certificates.
- You can set up your employees qualifying days pattern in 'Employee Details' > 'Pay run Defaults' > 'Standard Work Week' then click on ‘Advanced’ so you can edit the days your employee works.
Definitions
Period of incapacity for work (PIW):
In order for SSP to be paid a PIW needs to be formed. This is a period of sickness lasting 4 or more consecutive days, this includes non-working days, bank holidays and weekends.
If there are less than 4 days then no PIW has been formed, so no SSP is due.
Average Weekly Earnings (AWE):
An employee must have average weekly earnings of at least the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) for National Insurance to qualify for SSP.
Qualifying Days:
These are the days your employee normally works, they can be counted as waiting days and can be paid SSP.
Waiting Days:
When a PIW had been formed, the first 3 days are not payable, these are the ‘waiting days’, after this SSP is due. If the PIW is linked then the waiting days only apply to the first PIW.
If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know via support@yourpayroll.co.uk