Understand Statutory Sick Pay

Getting subsidies or relief

You can recover some of the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) you have paid out if you qualify under the Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS). This is designed to help employers who have a high percentage of their workforce off sick at any one time.

For information on recovering SSP and the PTS, download the help book on what to do if your employee is sick from the HM Revenue & Customs website (PDF). You can also download information on special cases and examples of employee sickness from the HM Revenue & Customs website (PDF).

The general principle of the PTS is that if in a tax month the total SSP you pay to all of your employees is more than 13 per cent of your total gross employer's plus employees' Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the same tax month, you are entitled to a refund of the excess.

How do I get the money back?
You can recover the amount of SSP you are entitled to by taking it from your NICs and PAYE payments.

If the amount of SSP you are entitled to recover is more than your monthly NICs and PAYE payments, you can deduct the balance from your next month's payment.

If you need to recover the money quickly, write to your HM Revenue & Customs accounts office, and tell them:

• the total amount of SSP you have paid in the tax month
• the amount you are entitled to recover, including how you calculated this

You can contact your local Accounts Office at the address printed on your payslip booklet, P30BC. You can also find your local office at the HM Revenue & Customs website

Find information on SSP recovery at the HM Revenue & Customs website.

You can also learn about SSP repayments at the HM Revenue & Customs website.

PAYE
SSP is included in gross pay, and PAYE and NICs operate as normal.

You will need a record of payments for each employee for each month in the tax year in which any recovery is made, so that you can complete the PAYE end of year forms.

You must keep full records of all sickness absences of four days or more and of all payments made to employees during their sick absence. This is so that HM Revenue & Customs can verify that your employees are receiving their full entitlement.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is Statutory Sick Pay and who gets it?
• Earnings-related qualification for SSP
• When to start and stop payments
• How much to pay
• Record keeping and forms
• Getting subsidies or relief
• Alternatives to paying Statutory Sick Pay
• Contractual issues

 Print This Page

Source - Business Link; Crown Copyright.