This explains which employees are eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and how to pay them.

 NOTE: Although SSP is a statutory payment, it isn't reclaimable from HMRC. The P32 report won't show any SSP reclaim. 

Who is eligible

To qualify for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), the employee must be:

• Off sick for four or more days in a row
• Earn an average of at least £123 per week
• Tell you when they're off sick and provide proof when required

 Read more on the HMRC website Statutory Sick Pay (opens in new window).

How much they're paid

Pay your employees for the days they usually work:

• £116.75 per week
• For a maximum of 28 weeks
• Pay employees in the usual way, and deduct NI and tax where appropriate
• Pay for the days employees usually work

Employees who don't qualify

For employees who don't qualify for SSP, or have been off sick for more than 28 weeks, give them form SSP1.

You can download it from the Gov.uk website. Employees Statement of Sickness (opens in new tab).

Pay employees SSP

1. From Pay Runs, choose Process Pay Run.
2. Check the pay date is correct, then select Next.
3. Select the relevant employee, then choose Add Absence.
4. Select Sickness, then complete the following details:
   • Documentation Received. If the employee has provided you with evidence of their incapacity to work, choose Yes
      NOTE: If you don't choose Yes, SSP won't calculate.  
   • Pregnancy-related Illness. If the sickness relates to the employee’s pregnancy, select this check box
   • Start Date. Enter the start date of the period of sickness that qualifies for SSP
   • End Date. Enter the end date of the period of sickness
      NOTE: SSP pays up to the payment date. If you're unsure when the employee returns, use the payment date as the end date.
     In the following pay periods, keep extending the End Date. Don't keep entering new lines of absence.
   • Pension Earnings. Select this if SSP payments are pensionable earnings.
   • Qualifying Earnings. Select this if the SSP payment gets classed as qualifying earnings. This is the amount your pension contributions are get based on if you contribute to a pension scheme. Read more about qualifying earnings.
5. Select Save and complete your pay run as normal.

 Payroll doesn't change employee salary payments itself.

If you want to pay employees SSP only, set all other payments to zero during the pay run.

To pay the employee their usual salary, reduce their usual pay by the SSP amount during the pay run.

Average weekly earnings

For employees to qualify for SSP, their average weekly earnings must be at least £123.

We'll calculate this based on the pay runs already processed for this employee.

When this is less than £123 per week, you'll see a message and you have two options:

1. Issue certificate SSP1. This means the employee has earned less than £123 per week and doesn't qualify for SSP. Select the SPP1 link to download the form to give to your employee.
2. Manually set the AWE value. Your employee has earned more than £123, but the earnings in your Payroll are less than this. This can happen if you started using Payroll part-way through the tax year.
3. Enter the employee average weekly earnings.

Change or remove sickness dates

If you recorded sick leave on a previous pay run, the absence carries over to the next pay run. You have two options

1. If your employee has returned to work, amend the End Date to the date they returned to work.
2. If your employee is still absent, don't create a new absence. Amend the End Date to a later date and continue the absence period.

 NOTE: If you delete the absence, it will no longer appear on payslips. You then risk causing corrections to future pay runs.  

Sickness added in error

If you have entered SSP incorrectly, you can fix this.

Any difference in SSP will be either:

• Deducted from the employee net pay
• Added to the employee net pay

This happens in the next pay run.

Read our article Make changes to a completed pay run (opens in new tab).

Warning Message

Statutory payments such as SSP don't apply to workers who fall under IR35 working rules.

These are deemed employees.

Trying to add a statutory absence to a deemed employee will give you the following warning|:

If you have deemed employees, they aren't entitled to SSP.

If you're unsure whether you have deemed employee, check with HMRC.

• Read their article https://www.gov.uk/guidance/off-payroll-working-for-clients#conditions

If you're certain you don't have any deemed employees, you need to correct this.

• Read our article Off-payroll working rules - IR35.

Work through the section "Correcting an incorrectly marked worker".

• SSP terms
• Recording absences in payroll
• Holiday pay
• Learn how process your pay run