Statutory Payments
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and the Introduction of Employment Support Allowance (ESA)
From Autumn 2008, ESA is being introduced to replace Incapacity Benefit and Income Support. For employers paying SSP, this is likely to mean changes to form SSP1 – less information to be provided. We will let you have more details as soon as possible.
Court of Appeal Judgment – Thorn Baker
A Court of Appeal judgement on 27th June 2007 dismissed HMRC's appeal from the decision of the High Court in the case of Commissioners for HMRC V Thorn Baker Limited and others meaning the decision given on 14 July 2006 stands, in that SSP is not payable to Agency workers whose contract with the agency is for a specified period of 3 months or less.
Equal Treatment Directive Judicial Review
Following a judgement handed down in March 2007 in the Equal Treatment Directive Judicial Review, changes are to be made to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA).
This will mean that there should be no distinction between entitlement to any non-pay benefits that are provided during ordinary maternity leave (OML) and during additional maternity leave (AML).
Changes are also to be made to the provisions on maternity leave in the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations (MPLR) 1999 to ensure the law is clear and unambiguous. Legislative changes will be made only to ensure that the regulations are consistent with the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
The result of the legislative changes is likely to extend all the non-pay contractual terms and conditions of employment to which a woman is entitled during OML throughout her AML, including accrual of contractual annual leave. These rights would therefore apply to the full 52 weeks maternity leave entitlement as opposed to the first 26 weeks as now. At the time of printing it was proposed that these changes should apply to employees whose expected week of childbirth begins on or after the 6th April 2008.
The judgment will not affect the differences concerning the type of job employees have a right to return to, which apply at the end of ordinary maternity leave and additional maternity leave respectively.
Amendments are also planned to the relevant adoption legislation (Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002) for employees who are expected to have children placed with them on or after the 6th April 2008.
We will provide more details as soon as they are available.
Work and Families Act 2006 – update
We have previously told you about our plans for the introduction of two of the major elements of the Work and Families Act 2006:
- the extension of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) from 39 weeks to 52 weeks, and
- the new Additional Paternity Leave and Pay (APL&P).
The Government aims to extend SMP, Maternity Allowance (MA) and SAP from 39 weeks to 52 weeks and to introduce APL&P by the end of this Parliament. APL&P will give employed fathers or partners a right to take up to an additional 26 weeks off work with pay to care for their child in its first year, provided the mother has returned to work and has not used her full entitlement to paid maternity or adoption leave.
It is the Government’s aim to introduce these changes by the end of this Parliament. Although the exact implementation date has not yet been announced, it has been decided that the changes will not be introduced in either April 2008 or April 2009. Up to now, we have been planning on the basis of an April 2009 start. We will now be planning implementation for babies due or babies and children placed on or after April 2010. This should not be taken to imply any firm timing decisions have been taken but is simply a pragmatic approach. We will not be planning for implementation in October 2009.
We will provide further updates in the next edition of the Bulletin and on our website.
As explained in previous editions of Employer Bulletin, some employees could become entitled to 52 weeks’ SMP/SAP/MA or APL&P as early as the 2009-10 year (in the period from November 2009 to March 2010).
For all the latest news and developments about the Work and Families Act 2006 check the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) (previously the Department for Trade and Industry) website.
Employer Helpbooks for 2008-09
We are improving the Statutory Payment guidance in the Employer Helpbooks:
- E14 What to do if your employee is sick,
- E15 Pay and time off work for parents, and
- E16 Pay and time off work for adoptive parents.
To make it easier to find the information you need and minimise duplication we are amalgamating each supplement with its corresponding Helpbook. For example, all information relating to SSP will be together in the E14. The new Helpbooks will be available from February 2008.
The new statutory payment rates (PDF 31K) for 2008-09 have also been published.
