Guide to qualifying for statutory sick pay (SSP)

Statutory Sick Pay Statutory sick pay refers to the pay an employer must give you if you’re too ill to work. It’s paid to you by your employer for up to 28 weeks, based on certain eligibility criteria - the cost of SSP is no longer able to be recovered - SSP is no longer reported to HMRC on your EPS submissions (SSP Statutory sick pay refers to the pay an employer must give you if you’re too ill to work. It’s paid to you by your employer for up to 28 weeks, based on certain eligibility criteria - the cost of SSP is no longer able to be recovered - SSP is no longer reported to HMRC on your EPS submissions) is paid when an employee is unable to work due to an illness or injury.

Eligibility

To be eligible for SSP, an employee must:

Employees don’t qualify for SSP if they:

  • Have received the maximum amount of SSP (28 weeks). (Employers can pay occupational sick).

  • Are getting statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance.

  • Are off work for a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the week their baby is due.

  • Were in custody or on strike on the first day of sickness (including any linked periods).

  • Received Employment Support Allowance within 12 weeks of starting or returning to work for you.

Calculating SSP

The two questions you first need to ask when calculating SSP are:

  1. Has a Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW) been formed?

  2. Have they earned enough?

Has a Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW) been formed?

An employee must be sick for 4 or more consecutive calendar days before they may be entitled to SSP; these days could include non-working days.

These four or more days are referred to as a Period of Incapacity for Work, or PIW.

If an employee has been sick for 3 or less consecutive calendar days there is no PIW and therefore no SSP entitlement.

For example, the following would not form a PIW:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Sick Sick Working Sick Working Sick Sick

But the following would:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Working Sick Sick Sick Sick Sick Sick

If a PIW has been formed, you then need to check if they are qualifying days.

Qualifying days

Qualifying days are the days the employee will be paid SSP. This is normally working days. When calculating a PIW you take non qualifying days into account.

Waiting Days

There needs to be a PIW. The first three qualifying days of a PIW are waiting days which do not qualify for payment.

They are not always the first 3 days of sickness as an employee may be sick on non-qualifying days (for example a weekend).

Have they earned enough?

Once you have established that a PIW has been formed and three waiting days have been served, you then need to check if the employee’s average earnings, for the 8 weeks prior to the PIW, are at least the lower earnings limit; if so they qualify for SSP.

Calculating the SSP Payment

Once an employee has been sick for their 4th consecutive qualifying day, you can calculate the SPP Statutory Parental Pay refers to the pay an employer must give to an employee who takes time off to care for their child, or surrogate's child, for up to 2 weeks. due.

If an employee only works 2 days, then it will take 2 weeks for the employee to receive the first SSP payment.

Linked Periods

PIWs can be linked together if an employee has returned to work then become sick again.

A linking period only arises if an employee has:

  • Had a PIW.

  • Had another PIW within 56 days (8 weeks).

If an employee has already served all three waiting days in a PIW, they will not need to serve them again in any subsequently linked PIW.

If an employee has a PIW in which they do not serve three waiting days and therefore do not get SSP, they will need to serve the remainder of their waiting days before they begin to receive SSP in any subsequently linked PIW.

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