SSP madness!

charley_177

Hello

I really need help with this because I just seem to get nowhere!

Don't know where to start here, and it is really complicated, but here goes:

Back in start of November I felt really ill towards the end of my shift at work, and went straight into the nearby NHS walk-in centre.

After about 1hr of poking/prodding/paracetomol, they called an ambulance and took me to A&E due to chest pains and very high pulse rate, plus shortness of breath.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, I was in hospital for weeks during November and then December. Just before Xmas I was allowed home for rest and recovery (convalesence (sp?)). About 2 weeks ago I had a chat with GP and consultant from hospital, they agreed I could go back to work if I was happy to. Private medical through work did another check, advised that only do reduced hours, about half what I normally do, for the first 3 weeks, to get back to "normal" gradually.

Meanwhile all my pay has been completely messed up.

According to my employer, my first day of sickness was 08/11/06 (three days after the above incident), the last day being 19/01/07, so the total gross SSP is £700.50 (10 weeks).

During my hospital stay I was given full pay for 2 weeks, which was an error on their part. Since then, the overpayments have been reclaimed and then (they state) "converted to the appropriate SSP payments".

None of the SSP payments appear on my payslips until mid-January. I have never received any SSP payments in my account since being off-sick, as they used the money to claim back the full pay that I shouldn't have received.

Even with the overpaid weeks (£165.90, £228.89, £165.90 = £560.69), I still "owe" them approx £210! Despite them getting £700.50 from the government in SSP, which makes me think that they owe me (£700.50 - £560.69 = £139.91)

I have been to CAB, but they could not understand or work out what had actually happened, or how they worked the figures out!

My managers have chased up payroll department, but they have confirmed the situation back to them.

Is there anyone else I could approach to help work out or at least explain what has happened?

TIA

Charley
http://www.gmroads.co.uk

Mrs_Supersaver_1

Hi Charley,

recently had to claim SSP myself via work - I do believe the first 3 days are called 'waiting days'. You then get SSP from 4th day of sickness.

Depending on how long you had been employed, you may also have been entitled to 'occupational sick pay'. Tho' your payslips should have distinguished each one?

You could do a number of things:

1.Contact HR yourself, ask for a breakdown of ALL monies recieved to date.Tell them you will raise a grievence proceedure, if it is not sorted.

2.Contact your Union - explain everything.

3. Contact ACAS (do a google search,stopping money without explanation is an illegal deduction)

4.Ask HR to get it sorted within 7 days as you have bills waiting to be paid.

5. Be PATIENT

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

rosysparkle

You said that you had been overpaid two weeks full pay - but then you say the overpaid amounts are £165.90, £228.89, £165.90 total £560.69. Are those figures your net pay for three weeks at full pay, if not, what do they represent? Are you paid weekly? Do you earn above the lower earnings limit for National Insurance (£84 a week)?

What you should have received from 08/11/06 to 19/01/07 is 10 weeks at 70.05 total £700.50. What have you actually received from your employer for those weeks?

Tongue

For starters only very small companies can claim back any SSP payments they have made through the national insurance and income tax that they forward to the inland revenue.

It would appear that your employer does not have a "company/occupational sick pay scheme" thus you are only entitled to SSP of £70.05 per week on production of a medical note.

I think your employer has paid you normal full pay unaware that you were in fact ill. This often happens in larger companies when the payroll department are not notified until after the employee has been off sick for at least a week maybe two.

The payroll department are just recovering the overpayment as best and as quickly as they can.