Statutory Sick Pay Help

Haldon_Forest

I am a little confused and wondered if anyone can help.

I started a new job mid July 2018. I am employed and have a contract which states a guaranteed 19hrs per month. There is no set work pattern per say as the office is open as per demand (mon to sat). We are given a rota a month in advance. Holiday is paid at an additional 12.07% to my hourly rate and therefore paid with my hours claimed for that month. (It is shown as holiday pay separately on pay slip).

I therefore, can work various days and a variety of hours ranging from 8.25hrs to 23 hrs a week.

Unfortunately, I was ill in November and called in sick, as per company policy. I was then admitted on day 4 by my GP to hospital. I was in hospital for a further 2 weeks during which time I had a major operation. This has resulted in me being signed off work for a further 8 weeks after being allowed to leave. So I won't return to the beginning of February.

Now my query is which are the 8 weeks for qualifying for SSP - only asking as the SSP1 form sent by the company stating I don't qualify states ' if your weekly earnings were less than the Lower Earnings Limit for the 8 weeks before you went sick'
Yet, they are I think adding up my last 2 payments paid prior to being sick which aren't 'the 8 weeks before' I went sick.

I am paid monthly in arrears and based on a 4/5 week month.

ie July hrs paid 24th August
August hrs paid 27th September = used in SSP calculations
September hrs paid 26th October = used in SSP calculations
October hrs paid 27th November
November hrs paid 21st December

Now to complicate matters - in August I was away for 2 weeks on holiday. Which was covered by the following :-
July hrs x 12.07% = 3.5 hrs paid 24th August (not included in SSP)
August hrs x 12.07% = 2.5 hrs paid 27th September (included)
September x 12.07% = 9 hrs paid 26th October (included)
October x 12.07 % = 8 hrs paid 27th November (not included)
November x 12.07% = 7hrs paid 21st December (not included)

Therefore, I didn't get 12wks AWE for the 2 weeks I was absent but it also means that the holiday pay for August was spread over August/September and October meaning that part of weekly average is not included either. If it was then I would meat the £116 per week limit.

Savvy_Sue

[STRIKE]I believe they should disregard any weeks in which you were not 'working', so August shouldn't count. I think there is an alternative method of calculating over a 'normal' 17 week period. [/STRIKE]

But I am not an expert, and you can find the information on the HMRC web pages, so I'd work out how you THINK they should have done the calculation and get back to them.

chrisbur

The earnings period is always decided by the first day of sickness so in your case if the first day was before your November payday then the two months to be used would be September and October paydays. if later than this then the October and November paydays.
Paydays are always used not the period of earnings that they cover.

The general rule is that if a payday has extra money in it that relates to another payday or has less in it that is paid in another payday then the no adjustment is made for this. The paydays are counted as exactly what is paid not what should have been paid.
"Calculation of AWE is always based on all earnings actually paid to the employee within the relevant period, regardless of any over or underpaid wages in that period."

So assuming that the correct period was used in relation to your first day of sickness ie it fell before your November payday and the correct figures were used then your employer appears correct in issuing the SSP1.

There is one point that might affect this calculation, it is something that I have had no experience of so might be worth querying with HMRC. I am definitely not saying it would be taken into account but you might want to try it especially if you are not going to qualify for any other benefit if you apply using the SSP1.
This is the rule regarding mistimed payments which is not shown these days so may even have been removed from the regulations. The following is how it appeared in the last guide issued regarding SSP.
"Mistimed payments
A mistimed payment occurs when the date of the actual payment of earnings is made earlier or later than the normal contractual payday. It is important that the following provision is only applied to regular payments of earnings paid other than on their normal date, for example due to a Bank Holiday. This type of payment should not be confused with a payroll error. For example, a mistake is made in the payroll resulting in a shortfall of pay when working out the AWE in the relevant period.
If you have paid an employee’s wages earlier or later than the normal contractual payday at the beginning or end of a relevant period because of a particular event, such as an annual holiday, you should divide the total earnings by the number of weeks’ wages that you have paid rather than the number of weeks in the relevant period.
For example, a weekly paid employee is taking two weeks paid holiday so you pay them three weeks’ wages on the last payday before they take their leave. They go sick six weeks after their holiday. The relevant period for SSP starts on the first day of their holiday. This means that you only paid them six weeks wages during the eight week relevant period as you had paid their wages for
the first two weeks before the beginning of the
relevant period.
To give the correct AWE you should divide the total earnings actually paid in the relevant period by six, as the earnings represent only six weeks’ wages."

I do not know if this would apply to the way your holiday pay is paid or even if the rule still applies but might be worth querying with HMRC.

Savvy_Sue

I stand corrected. Probably confusing it with the calculation of holiday pay, which is not at issue for the op.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

[STRIKE]I believe they should disregard any weeks in which you were not 'working', so August shouldn't count. I think there is an alternative method of calculating over a 'normal' 17 week period. [/STRIKE]

But I am not an expert, and you can find the information on the HMRC web pages, so I'd work out how you THINK they should have done the calculation and get back to them.

I am not an expert, but I think chrisbur is ...

chrisbur

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I am not an expert, but I think chrisbur is ...

Not sure I would go that far but did work in payroll for over 30 years.
For most of that time various government departments would issue guide books; the one for SSP was the Employer Helpbook E14. This was last issued as far as I can tell in 2012 and it is this one that the quotations in my post come from. I would look forward each year to the issue of the new set of guide books the E13 E14 E15 CWG2 and several others whose reference numbers I have forgotten. These have all now been replaced by some form of online help (some better than others) but nothing is as good as a printed book that you can make notes on in the margins and read anywhere.

Savvy_Sue

chrisbur wrote: »

I would look forward each year to the issue of the new set of guide books the E13 E14 E15 CWG2 and several others whose reference numbers I have forgotten. These have all now been replaced by some form of online help (some better than others) but nothing is as good as a printed book that you can make notes on in the margins and read anywhere.

:rotfl: I hope you realise how sad that sounds! :rotfl:

I ran a very small payroll in the days before you could do anything online, so each week meant sitting down for an hour with a strong cup of coffee, a wet towel around the head, and the book of tables for tax and NI, to manually calculate everyone's deductions. Moving on to being able to do the sums online felt like HUGE progress, even though you couldn't save the results and had to write them down before moving onto the next member of staff.

Those days are long gone, but I'm now working in an organisation with 30+ staff, and I send information off monthly to a bureau so they can do the magic and produce the payslips etc. But it is a huge advantage to understand the nuts and bolts behind the system!

OP, I hope you're able to resolve this.