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Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid to employees who are unable to work because of illness. As an employer you're responsible for paying SSP to employees who meet certain 'qualifying conditions'.
You can use free SSP calculators provided by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to calculate how much SSP to pay an employee and to see if you can recover any of it.
Alternatively you can work out SSP manually, but HMRC recommends using their calculators as they'll save you time and help reduce error.
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Before you can work out how much SSP to pay you'll need:
If you and your employee haven't agreed on their normal working days take whichever days they're contracted to work for you. If they don't have a contract, take the days on which they normally work.
You'll need the above information whatever method you use to work out SSP.
If you have a high proportion of your workforce off sick at the same time you may be able to recover some or all of the SSP you pay.
To work out if you can recover any SSP, you'll need details of:
You can't automatically recover SSP. You can only recover any SSP you've paid in a tax month that's over and above 13 per cent of your gross Class 1 NICs liability for that month. This is known as the 'Percentage Threshold Scheme' (PTS). Unless you qualify under the PTS, you are not entitled to recover any SSP.
There are two SSP calculators - one for working out how much SSP to pay and one for checking if you can recover any SSP from HMRC. You'll find both of these on the HMRC website.
The online SSP calculator can help you confirm that an employee's eligible for SSP.
The online SSP calculator gives you weekly breakdowns of the SSP payable and tell you how many 'waiting days' have passed (days on which the employee would normally have worked but was off sick - you can only start paying SSP after three waiting days have passed).
Once you know the SSP figure, you'll need to record what you pay on the employee's P11 Deductions Working Sheet or equivalent - either using the P11 Calculator tool if you keep electronic records (recommended) or by adding the figures onto a paper P11.
If you use commercial payroll software that doesn't have a built-in SSP calculator, you can use also HMRC's SSP calculator and then put the figures into the software.
If you're due a recovery the P11 Calculator (or your payroll software, if relevant) will automatically work this out and take it into account when working out your monthly or quarterly payment to HMRC.
If you will have insufficient money to recover the payments from the next payment due or there are no further payments due in the tax year, see the later section, 'Advance funding for SSP'.
A set of Basic PAYE Tools is available to download straight to your computer. In addition to calculators for SSP and other statutory payments, the tools include:
Work out how much SSP to pay - use HMRC's online calculator
Check whether you can make an SSP recovery - use HMRC's online calculator
Download Basic PAYE Tools from the Business Link website (Opens new window)
Read about how to record payments and deductions on form P11
To work out how much SSP to pay manually, you'll need to:
You can read more about what makes up a PIW - and how many waiting days there are in a PIW before SSP is payable - by following the link below.
Statutory Sick Pay - an overview
The weekly rate for 2011-12 is £81.60.
The daily rate of SSP is the weekly rate divided by the number of agreed qualifying days (days when the employee normally works) in the week - to four decimal places.
This means that if the employee normally works five days in a week there are five qualifying days and the daily rate is £16.32 (£81.60 divided by five). If the employee normally works three days in a week there are three qualifying days and the daily rate is £27.2000 (£81.60 divided by three - to four decimal places).
You'll find a daily rate table for SSP in the HMRC publication E14, 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Sick Pay'.
If the number of qualifying days to be paid in a week is equal to the number of qualifying days in a full week, the amount of SSP payable is simply the weekly rate.
If the number of qualifying days to be paid is less than a full week's worth, work out the daily rate and then multiply it by the number of qualifying days for which SSP is payable.
Download E14, 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Sick Pay' (PDF 212K)
To calculate SSP recovery manually you'll need to:
(This method is called the 'Percentage Threshold Scheme' (PTS).)
If the total SSP you paid in a tax month comes to more than 13 per cent of your gross Class 1 NICs liability for the month, you can recover the excess.
You enter the amount of recovery in column 5 of the P32 Employer Payment Record and offset any SSP you can recover against PAYE (Pay As You Earn), NICs and student loan deductions you're due to pay over to HMRC. If the amount you can recover is more than your monthly or quarterly payment due, carry the balance over to when your next payment is due.
Where you will have insufficient money to recover the payments from the next payment due or there are no further payments due in the tax year, please contact your HMRC Accounts Office to request the balance.
Get a blank form P32 Employer Payment Record
Please bear in mind that:
If you want to recover SSP you paid in a previous tax year, you'll need to fill in form SP32. You can download it using the link below.
You can read more about recovering SSP from previous tax years in the E14, 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Sick Pay'.
Go to form SP32 to make a late SSP recovery claim
Download E14, 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Sick Pay' (PDF 212K)
If you discover that you underpaid or overpaid SSP during the current tax year, you must put the error right and correct your records. You can recover any overpaid SSP from your employee and should treat any overpayment or underpayment as you would an underpayment or overpayment of wages or salary - in other words record the correction as wages or salary not SSP.
You'll also need to see if the error affects any other SSP payments you made later.
If you don't discover the error until after the end of the tax year, contact HMRC (see 'Help and advice' below) for advice.
If you don't have sufficient payroll deductions available to cover the SSP you're entitled to recover under PTS, you may be able to apply for funding from HMRC. Follow the link below for more information.
Get help with statutory payments funding
If you provide benefits to your employees under a salary sacrifice scheme, this can have an impact on SSP. Follow the link below for guidance on this issue.
Salary sacrifice: an overview for employers
Find out about the impact of salary sacrifice arrangements on SSP (PDF 134K)
Follow the links below to find out more about SSP.
Statutory Sick Pay - an overview
Download E14, 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Sick Pay' (PDF 212K)
Quick answers to common questions on SSP
If you still can't find what you need - and have already checked the overview guide on SSP and the E14 helpbook - you can ask a question through HMRC's email query service.
Use the SSP email query service
Alternatively you get advice from HMRC's Employer Helpline.
