SSP Entitlement questions

Cate1976

My husband had a week of work a few weeks back, he is contracted 25 hours week term time and some days during school holidays.

We know that the first 3 days of the 5 he was off sick are waiting days but we were expecting either contractual or SSP for the last 2 days he was off. He's been paid today but hasn't been paid any sick pay. I've checked his works sickness policy and it says that sickness absence will be paid at either of contractual or SSP depending on factors including length of service. He's only been with the company since the 2nd September (TUPED from company that used to have the cleaning contract for where he works). Should the company he's now working for be counting the almost 10 months he worked for the previous company in length of service?

On checking entitlement to SSP, I've found that you have to have earnt £109 per week in the 8 weeks before going off sick, for my husband this includes October half term when he only worked 2 out of the 5 days. Does the £109 have to have been in each of the 8 weeks or is it the average during the 8 weeks? He's also had a 2 day period of sickness and at least 1 other day off since 18th September (9th-17th September he had off for Paternity leave, the 16th & 17th were unpaid due to the complete weeks rule for Paternity leave). The first of the 8 weeks before he went off sick was week beginning 14th october.

I've asked my husband to get the list of the days he's had off sick since September for our records. He does have a couple of medical conditions which make him more susceptible to illness, all declared on the medical form filled out when he was TUPED in September.

Thanks to anyone who can answer these questions for us.

paddedjohn

£109 is an average of the previous 8 weeks

Cate1976

Thanks for that John, that's what I thought, Gov website doesn't make it clear says earn at least £109 a week. When he went off sick, my husband hadn't been paid for the previous week (2nd-6th, gets paid every 4 weeks), does that make a difference to SSP entitlement?

paddedjohn

Google "SPM10610" to find the HMRC page that is relavent, the last sentence explains it.

chrisbur

Assuming payments are at regular intervals then the weekly average earnings figure required would be the last payday before the first day of sickness, plus the payday before that and that total is then divided by eight.

Cate1976

Here's the pay dates & pay periods if anyone can tell me which weeks are being counted as the 8 relevant.

03/01/14 paid for period 02/12/13 - 27/12/13, week beginning 9th he was off sick, week beginning 23rd was the first week of school holiday.
06/12/13 paid for period 04/11/13 - 29/11/13
08/11/13 paid for period 07/10/13 - 01/11/13
11/10/13 paid for period 09/09/13 - 04/10/13, week beginning 9th he was off on paternity leave, week beginning 16th he had 16th & 17th off as unpaid leave worked the other 3 days.

chrisbur

Cate1976 wrote: »

Here's the pay dates & pay periods if anyone can tell me which weeks are being counted as the 8 relevant.

03/01/14 paid for period 02/12/13 - 27/12/13, week beginning 9th he was off sick, week beginning 23rd was the first week of school holiday.
06/12/13 paid for period 04/11/13 - 29/11/13
08/11/13 paid for period 07/10/13 - 01/11/13
11/10/13 paid for period 09/09/13 - 04/10/13, week beginning 9th he was off on paternity leave, week beginning 16th he had 16th & 17th off as unpaid leave worked the other 3 days.

If we assume first day of sickness was 9/12/13 then the last payday before that would be 6/12/13. The payday falling not less than eight weeks before this would be 11/10/13 so the relevant period starts on 12/10/13 and ends on 6/12/13.
Paydays for 8/11/13 and 6/12/13 fall within the relevant period so they would be added together and divided by eight to give the average.


Has he received an SSP1 form or letter advising that SSP was not being paid, if so what reason was given? If no form received has he contacted wages office to see what is going on; may just be an oversight?

Cate1976

Have hunted out my husband's payslips for the period in question. He's been told he's not entitled to SSP but not given SSP1. Am listing details from payslips in the hope that someone can tell me if he should get SSP for the last 2 days of sickness.

Pay date 08/11/2013 period 04/10/2013-31/10/2013. Gross pay £515.91
Pay date 06/12/2013 period 01/11/2013-28/11/2013 Gross pay £789.70
Pay date 03/01/2014 period 29/11/2013-26/12/2013 Gross pay £372.5.

Thanks to anyone who can answer this one.

Is it worth emailing payroll to ask them to look again? I'm also wondering if payroll was off the whole of Christmas week so only set up pay for hours actually worked.

chrisbur

Cate1976 wrote: »

Have hunted out my husband's payslips for the period in question. He's been told he's not entitled to SSP but not given SSP1. Am listing details from payslips in the hope that someone can tell me if he should get SSP for the last 2 days of sickness.

Pay date 08/11/2013 period 04/10/2013-31/10/2013. Gross pay £515.91
Pay date 06/12/2013 period 01/11/2013-28/11/2013 Gross pay £789.70
Pay date 03/01/2014 period 29/11/2013-26/12/2013 Gross pay £372.5.

Thanks to anyone who can answer this one.

Is it worth emailing payroll to ask them to look again? I'm also wondering if payroll was off the whole of Christmas week so only set up pay for hours actually worked.

Without an SSP1 or letter of explanation cannot be sure exactly why they are not paying SSP.
The following is from the employers' guide....


"Employees who can’t get SSP from you
Some employees can’t get SSP from you when they are sick. You must give them form SSP1 within 7 days of them notifying sickness explaining why they are not entitled to SSP. They may be able to claim a social security benefit instead. "


"If you consider that your employee is not entitled to SSP for any reason not included on form SSP1, there is an example letter below that you may wish to use to advise your employee."


There seems to be no reason not to pay on these earnings figures even if the wrong payments were used and 6/12/13 and 3/1/14 were used this would still give a high enough average. But without knowing why it has been refused it is difficult to put up a case to disagree with this decision.


Your husband is entitled to an explanation from his employer. The following is from the employers' guide....


"Your employee disagrees with your decision on their SSP entitlement
Written statement
If you decide not to pay SSP for a QD, for whatever reason, you should explain your decision to your employee. If they don’t agree, they have the right to ask for a written statement from you about: • those days that you regard SSP is payable for • how much SSP you consider your employee is entitled to • why you do not regard yourself as liable to pay SSP for other days in the period. An employee can ask for a written statement at any time, and if the request is reasonable you must supply the statement within a reasonable time, for example within seven days of the request."


If he disagrees with this explanation then he can ask HMRC for a formal decision.