Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) - glossary

Terms explained for SSP

Average Weekly Eearnings (AWE)

To get SSP your employee must have AWE of at least the LEL, in the period of at least eight weeks before the first day that they are off sick. Details of how to work out AWE can be found in the Employers Helpbook E14.

Casual, agency or short term workers

Usually someone who works for somebody as and when they are required, but they do not have to accept the work that is offered. The person with the work does not have to offer it to them.

Daily rate of SSP

The daily rate of SSP is the weekly rate divided by the number of agreed Qualifying Days (QDs) in that week. For SSP purposes the week always begins with a Sunday. The amount payable that week is the daily rate multiplied by the number of QDs the employee is sick in that week, not including Waiting Days (WDs).

Director

A director is usually a person who either on their own, or with their fellow directors, control(s) the running of a company.

Earnings

AWE should include all earnings paid in the set period that attract a Class 1 NIC liability, or would if they were high enough. Earnings include Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and SSP.

If, on any payday, the employee was not due any pay, for example they were on unpaid leave, the period over which the calculation is made remains the same and unpaid weeks are included.

If your employee’s earnings are lower than the LEL, you may need to add in enough of any earnings subject to Class 1B NICs within the ‘set period’, to bring their average earnings up to the LEL.

Gross earnings

The amount the employee is due to receive before any deductions are made.

Late notification

If your employee doesn’t notify you of their sick absence within:

  • the time set out in your company rules
  • seven calendar days of the first day of incapacity
  • as the employer you feel there was good cause for delay, you must accept that the notification is in time if it is given
    • within seven days after the relevant day(s) of incapacity
    • within one calendar month of the time you had specified
    • up to 91 days after the relevant day(s) of incapacity, if you are satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the employee to notify you within the calendar month
    • If you decide to accept late notification you should treat the date of late notification as the first day of sick absence.

Withholding payment due to late notice

You can withhold payment of SSP for the period of the delay if the notification is given outside these time limits and you do not accept there was good cause for delay. If you decide to withhold payment you should treat the date of the late notification as the first day of sick absence.

Legal custody

Legal custody means detained, arrested or in prison. It doesn’t include voluntarily helping the police with enquiries, serving a suspended sentence or being on bail.

An employee who is in legal custody at any time on the first day of the PIW cannot get SSP for the whole of that PIW. If they are taken into custody during a PIW your liability to pay them SSP stops and you should send them form SSP1. They cannot get SSP for the rest of that PIW or any linked PIW.

PIW

PIWs are linked and treated as one PIW if the gap between them is eight weeks (56 days) or less. A PIW must always be formed before there can be a link, that is that your employee must be sick for at least four or more days in a row. Odd days of sickness do not form a PIW and cannot link. If your employee has been off sick in the last eight weeks before the start of the next PIW, you need to have details of the last date they were off sick, how many Waiting Days (WDs) were used and how many weeks and days SSP were paid.

LEL

This is the minimum level of earnings that an employee needs to qualify for SSP.

For SSP it is the LEL which applies on the first day of the PIW or first day of a series of linked PIW’s. Details of LEL can be found in Employers Helpbook E14.

Mistimed payments

Mistiming only applies to regular payments of earnings that have a normal or contractual payday. Other payments of earnings made within the ‘set period’, such as bonus or commission payments, are not affected unless they have a contractual payday.

Notification periods

You can make your own rules about when and how your employee should notify sickness for your own purposes. You must tell your employees the rules for notification in advance.

For SSP purposes, if you have not notified your workforce of your rules in advance, the law allows for notification to be within seven days of the first day of sick absence.

You also cannot insist that your employee notifies you:

  • in person
  • earlier than the first QD in a spell of sickness
  • by a fixed time on the first QD
  • more often than once a week during the sickness
  • on a special form
  • on a medical certificate.

PIWs

A PIW is a period of sick lasting at least four or more days in a row. All days of sickness count towards the total number of days, even non working days and bank holidays. If there are less than four consecutive days there is no PIW and you need take no action.

PTS

The scheme under which you as the employer may be able to recover some, or all, of the SSP you have paid to your employees in a tax month.

QD

Qualifying Days (QDs) are the only days you can:

  • pay SSP for
  • count as WDs.

They are usually the days of the week your employee normally works. You can decide to have other days as QDs but this must be agreed with your workforce.

There must be at least one QD each week running from Sunday to Saturday. Bank Holidays do not alter the normal pattern of QDs.

Set period

The ‘set period’ or relevant period is needed to establish the earnings to be used and the number of days, weeks or months to divide those earnings by. All earnings paid in the ‘set period’ are divided by the number of days, weeks or months in that ‘set period.’

Regulations define the ‘set period’ as the period between:

  • Date 1 - The last normal payday before the first complete day of sick absence. This pay day is Date 1 and is the end of the ‘set period
  • Date 2 - find the last normal payday falling not less than eight weeks before the payday at Date 1. Date 2 is the day after this payday and is the start of the ‘set period’.

You must include all of the earnings paid on, or after, Date 2 up to and including those paid on Date 1.

The ‘set period’ ends with the last normal payday before the first complete day of sick absence and starts with the day after the last normal payday at least 8 weeks before that.

SSP

SSP is a measure of earnings replacement for employees who are off work sick.

As an employer you are liable to pay this to all your employees who satisfy all the qualifying conditions when they are off work sick.

SSP1 (change over form)

SSP1 is given to your employee to tell them why they cannot get SSP from. It should be completed together with a blank SSP1, to send to your employee if:

  • they have been sick for four or more days in a row and are not entitled to SSP from you
  • their entitlement to SSP stops but they are still sick.

This will enable them to submit a claim for Social Security Benefits.

SSP1(L) leaver’s statement (form)

SSP1(L) is given to your employee to tell them why they cannot get SSP from you. It should be completed together with a blank SSP1, to send to your employee if:

  • they have been sick for four or more days in a row and are not entitled to SSP from you
  • their entitlement to SSP stops but they are still sick

This will enable them to submit a claim for Social Security Benefits.

WDs

SSP is not payable for the first three QDs in a Period of Incapacity for Work (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 not all of the three WDs have been served in the first PIW, the remaining WDs must be served at the beginning of the next linked PIW. Once served there is no need for them to be served in any later linked PIWs.

Week

For working out SSP entitlement and payment, a week is a period of seven days, running from Sunday to Saturday.