The law requires you to pay SSP to all employees who are ill and qualify for this payment.

Sage 50 Payroll simplifies processing sick pay by calculating SSP values for you.

Before you start, check that your employee's qualifying day pattern is correct. For help with doing this, follow the holiday and absence qualifying day patterns article.

Enter the absence details

When you need to enter SSP for an employee, you can set this up in enter payments.

1. Select the employee, click Payroll.
2. Click Enter Payments then SSP /Parental Leave.
3. Click and drag to select the date range.
4. Right-click and click SSP, then Due to sickness.
5. If applicable, enter a comment, then click OK.
6. Check that the absence diary displays the correct characters for the dates you entered.
   • x - Waiting day within a pay period, not yet updated
   • p - Paid day within a pay period, not yet updated
   • - - Non-qualifying day within a pay period, not yet updated. For example a Saturday or Sunday if the employee works Monday to Friday
     TIP: Lower case characters indicate days that you haven't paid yet. Upper case characters indicate days that you've already paid.
7. If the characters are incorrect, you need to change the qualifying day pattern.
8. Check that the S.S.P. Payable box displays the correct amount of SSP for the current pay period.
9. Check that the S.S.P. Weeks box displays the correct number of weeks.
10. If a warning message says that the employee's average earnings are too low, click OK.
11. Click Recording S.S.P, then click No.
12. Click Earnings during set period, then OK.
13. Check the payment information.
     NOTE: When you update records, your software updates the diary with the payments up to the process date. 
14. Click OK, then Save.
15. Click Close.

You're now ready to continue processing your payroll. If required, you can adjust normal payments to accommodate statutory pay.

Further information

SSP limit

Your software automatically calculates any SSP due based on the sickness absences you enter. The maximum duration for SSP payments is 28 weeks. Your software automatically stops calculating SSP if an employee reaches this limit.

If an employee reaches this stage and they aren't due any other payments, place them on hold. For help with doing this, follow the set whether an employee is on hold article.

Part worked day

If an employee works one minute or more of their shift then goes home sick, you can't count this as a sick day. To find out more, go to Gov.UK.

Although statutory sick pay isn't due for a part-worked day, you can choose whether to record the absence in Sage 50 Payroll. To do this, you can set up and use custom absence types.