The law requires you to pay statutory sick pay (SSP) to all employees who are ill and qualify for sick pay.

Eligibility

To qualify for SSP, employees must:

• Be off work sick for 4 or more qualifying days in a row
   TIP: Qualifying days are the days an employee is absent that they'd normally work. Holiday and absence qualifying day patterns >
• Earn an average of at least [BCB:244:UKI Payroll LEL value:ECB] per week
• Have an employment contract and completed some work under their contract
• Give you notice and proof of illness when needed

NOTE: Employees paid less than 8 weeks of earnings still qualify for SSP. You can use sick pay calculator on the Gov website to work out how much to pay them.

If your employee is off work due to sickness and not eligible for SSP, you must issue form SSP1. To access form SSP1 and for more information about the qualifying factors visit Gov.uk >

Entitlement

If your employee qualifies for SSP, the current legislation entitles them to 28 weeks at [BCB:286:UKI Payroll Statutory sick weekly rate:ECB]. They receive SSP:

• For the days they usually work - called ‘qualifying days’
• In the same way as wages, for example on the normal payday, deducting tax and National insurance

You can also view SSP daily rates at Gov.UK >

Linked SSP period

If an employee returns to work after SSP, then goes onto SSP again within 8 weeks for a period of 4 days or more, this is a linked period. 

You don't need to apply waiting days to a linked period of SSP, as they were served in the initial SSP. When you use the SSP function in Sage 50 Payroll to process a linked period, your software calculates this correctly automatically.

Process SSP in payroll

You can use the enter statutory sick pay (SSP) via the employee's record guide to process sick pay.