Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid to employees who are unable to work because of illness. SSP is paid at the same time and in the same way as you would pay wages for the same period.

As an employer you're responsible for paying SSP to employees who meet certain qualifying conditions.

You'll need to:
 

• determine whether an employee meets the qualifying conditions
   
• calculate how much SSP they're due
   
• pay the SSP to them
   
• keep a record of the SSP you pay

Employers may choose to opt out of fully operating the SSP Scheme in favour of their own Occupational Sick Pay scheme.

SSP Entitlements

Qualifying Days

These are the employee’s contractual or normal working days. SSP is paid for each qualifying day. You can however decide not to use the contracted working days if, for example, your workforce operates a varied work pattern each week but for simplicity you may want to have the same days each week as the QDs.

Recovery of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

The SSP reimbursement scheme known as the Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS) was discontinued with effect from 06th April 2014.

 

Important Note - If Sick leave it not even showing on the paylsip as an option, ensure that this setting is enabled by going to Employer > Edit Employer Details > Typical Employee tab. 

Within the Options section, there is a checkbox—make sure it is ticked. If this box is left unticked, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will not appear on the payslip at all.

Entering Statutory Sick Pay in BrightPay

To access this utility, simply click 'Payroll' and select the employee’s name on the left:
 

1. Under Statutory Pay, click Calendar
    
2. On the Calendar, select the date range the employee is out sick (include any non-working days which fall within the date range)
    
3. Click Sick Leave at the top right of the screen -  the number of Qualifying Days, SSP days will be displayed on the screen.
    
4. Close the Calendar and the program will automatically apply any SSP due to the employee.

Overriding the 'Average Weekly Earnings' Calculation

If existing payment records have not been recorded in BrightPay or there is insufficient historical payroll data to determine the employee's AWE, the automatic calculation performed by the program after completing the above may be inaccurate or not possible. Where the user otherwise determines that the employee does qualify for SSP,  they may override the AWE by doing the following:
 

1. On the main Payroll screen, click the Edit icon in the employee’s Statutory Payments section
    
2. In Sick Leave, select the option ‘Override average weekly earnings calculation’
    
3.  The program will now automatically calculate SSP

SSP & Finalised Pay Periods
 

In the event that a payroll operator is notified of an employee's sick leave status after the pay period in which it falls has been finalised, BrightPay facilitates a retrospective adjustment to be made to the employee's calendar record which will simply pay or refund any SSP difference in the following (or later) pay period.
 

Examples of scenarios:
 

• An employer may only inform their payroll bureau in November that an employee was sick in October, but the October payroll has already been run and the employee paid.

• A company pays their employees on the 25th of every month for month ending the 31st of the month. An employee is out on sick leave at the pay date but continues to be sick up until the 31st of the month.  These subsequent sick days may not have been accounted for in this pay period if there was uncertainty on whether the employee would be able to return to work after the 25th. 

Making an SSP adjustment in BrightPay to already finalised pay periods:
 

• Click 'Payroll' and select the employee’s name on the left
   
• Select the employee's current open pay period
   
• Under Statutory Pay, click Calendar
   
• On the employee's Calendar, highlight or un-highlight the employee's sick days depending on the adjustment needed. 
   
• Click Sick Leave at the right of the screen
   
• Select the Payroll tab again to return back to the Payslip 

BrightPay will then compare the total SSP that should have been paid in previous pay periods against the total SSP that was actually paid in previous pay periods, and will calculate the difference. This difference will then be added to the employee's current open payslip as an SSP carry-over or refund amount.

In addition, any previous payslips which has had some or all of its SSP carried forward to a future pay period will show a yellow alert explaining what has happened and will reference the amount carried forward.

In the event you don't wish the SSP amount to carry forward, but instead wish to re-open the previous payslip and apply the SSP to this:

• In Payroll, select the finalised payslip and click 'Re-open Payslips' on the menu toolbar
   
• If you wish to apply the SSP amount to this payslip, simply click 'Reset SSP' 

SSP1 Form

In the event that an employee is not entitled to SSP or their SSP has come or is coming to an end, employers are to provide the employee with form SSP1.

Managing Sick Leave
 

Managing sick leave can be a challenge for every employer. It is essential that businesses find the balance between supporting those employees who are genuinely sick and minimising unnecessary absences in order to reduce costs.

Guidance for employers on how to manage sickness absences can be found here.

If you wish employer contributions to continue to be based on the employee’s “normal” or “notional” salary (i.e., their pay before sick leave), while employee contributions may be based on actual pay received (which could be SSP or zero if the employee is on unpaid leave).

How to manage this in BrightPay:

• You can manually override the pension amount while the employee is on sick leave.
• To do this, when processing payroll for the employee on sick leave, click into the pension contribution field and change the % to £ and enter the pension contribution manually as an amount. 

If you need further guidance on your specific pension scheme requirements, it’s always best to check with your pension provider or refer to your scheme documentation. 

Note: BrightPay will not automatically adjust the number of hours or periodic pay when SSP is applied to the payslip. Any adjustment will have to be done manually by reducing the number of hours or working out the employee's daily rate and then adjusting the periodic pay by the number of days the employee was on sick leave.