Understanding statutory sick pay

Within limits, you can set up your own rules about how your employees inform you when they are sick.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is only paid to an employee who is absent from work due to sickness for at least one full day, forming what is known as a period of incapacity for work (PIW). The PIW is made up of all days of incapacity or deemed incapacity when the employee did no work for their employer, including:

• non-working days such as weekends or rest days
• holidays
• any other days on which the employee would not normally be expected to work.

SSP is not paid for any days the employee was not expected to work.

Linking periods

If a PIW starts within eight weeks of the end of a previous PIW, the periods are linked and count as one period of sickness.

Qualifying days

Qualifying days are the only days for which SSP can be paid. They must be agreed upon by both the employee and the employer. They are usually the days of the week on which an employee is required to work, be available for work, or normally work under their contract. Bank holidays do not interrupt the normal pattern of qualifying days.

If an employee works a rota system covering several weeks, the qualifying days in each week of the rota may be different. However, the employee and employer may agree that the same days in every week are qualifying days. There must be at least one qualifying day each week.

Read further guidance on SSP and qualifying days.

Payment of SSP during a phased return to work

If the employee has previously been off sick and you have agreed to a phased return to work, you must consider payment of the employee's normal wages for days worked and SSP for days not worked in the normal working week.

Stopping payment of SSP

SSP usually stops once an employee returns to work for their regular number of days and/or hours. You should calculate if any SSP is still owing to them for previous days of sickness - pay any outstanding money on their next normal pay day.

Stop paying SSP if your employee:

• is still off sick after SSP has been paid for 28 weeks
• has had linked periods of sickness that have spanned a period of three years - even if you haven't paid a total of 28 weeks' worth of SSP

You also stop paying SSP to an employee if she starts receiving statutory maternity pay (SMP) - or maternity allowance (MA) if she doesn't qualify for SMP. The employee would start receiving SMP or MA if she either:

• Has chosen to start receiving SMP or MA on a particular date, which also happens to be when she would be due SSP.
• Is off sick for a pregnancy-related illness within four weeks of the start of her expected week of childbirth or the date she has chosen for her SMP to begin, whichever is earlier. In these circumstances, she stops working and starts to receive SMP or MA automatically.

If an employee is not entitled to SMP or MA, and is not already receiving SSP, she will be disqualified from receiving SSP for a period of 18 weeks.

Issuing the SSP1 form

If you stop paying an employee SSP and they are still off sick, you should advise them to make a claim for employment and support allowance (ESA) from their local Jobs & Benefits office. You must complete form SSP1 and send it to the employee immediately. Form SSP1 is used to support a claim for ESA.

If you know in advance that an employee will be off sick for more than 28 weeks, you should send the SSP1 form to them up to six weeks before the end of this 28-week period so that they can claim ESA without delay.

For more information on making and stopping SSP payments, see an overview of SSP.