On the 4th of March, to combat the spread of Coronavirus, the Government announced that workers will receive statutory sick pay from their first day off, not the fourth. This means that employee’s will not have any waiting days associated with their SSP calculation.
What does this mean?
Here we will assume the 2020/2021 SSP rate is £95.85 and a qualifying pattern of Monday to Friday.
SSP Rules
If the employee was off for five days Monday to Friday, three are classed as waiting days and two are qualifying days. If the employee earns more than the LEL (£120 per week 2020/2021) they would be paid: 2* (95.85/5) = £38.34.
For those employees that self-isolate the SSP paid would be: 5* (95.85/5) = £95.85
How do I handle this in Kashflow?
From Payslips & Periods, select the employee. In the Payments section, add a new item, Adjustment – Statutory – Statutory Sick Pay and enter the value for the three days SSP.
Recovery of Covid-19 related SSP
It was announced in the budget, delivered 11th March, that companies with less the 250 employees would be able to reclaim statutory sick payments made as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
HMRC recognises that existing systems are not designed to facilitate such employer refunds for SSP and are working with developers over the coming months to set up a repayment mechanism, whether this be a part of your payroll software or some other, yet to be determined, external process.
We plan to issue further detailed guidance as soon as possible.