Zero hour contract and SSP and UC

hsnhendr1989

Hi,

I have been employed on a 0 hour contract for the past 2 years. For the past 8 weeks, I have earned above £118 per week and so I am above the minimum amount for SSP.  

I have been working from home in the job over the past few weeks. I have become very ill but not with Covid. 

Can I claim SSP from day 1 (or is this only for people sick with Covid symptoms)? Can I claim SSP whilst still continuing to get my UC? I have my income topped up with UC and have done for the past few months. Can this continue or will SSP cancel out UC? 

I would like to know the facts before I claim over the agency I work for as they have not always been helpful and they've said there's no way I can be furloughed at all. If there's a way for them to get out of paying me, I'm sure they'll try

calcotti

The threshold for SSP has been £120 since 6th April.
To the best of my knowledge SSP is only payable from day 1 for those with coronavirus symptoms.
if you are sick you are entitled to receive SSP. For UC the SSP will be taken into account in the same way as your normal earnings. 

hsnhendr1989

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I have earnt £120 + over the past 8 weeks. One thing I have been worrying about, though, is if they just drop my hours if I try and claim sick pay. I understand that those on 0 hours contracts are just entitled to SSP until their current assignment ends. So, for example, if a 0 hour worker agreed on an assignment until August 2020, then they would be entitled to SSP until then? However, if the employer just ended their hours on that assignment (which I'm sure they can do on a 0 hour contract), then the worker has no assignments and therefore no entitlement to SSP (despite earning more than £120 over the past weeks)? Is this the case? Does my question make sense here?

calcotti

hsnhendr1989 said:

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I have earnt £120 + over the past 8 weeks. One thing I have been worrying about, though, is if they just drop my hours if I try and claim sick pay. I understand that those on 0 hours contracts are just entitled to SSP until their current assignment ends. So, for example, if a 0 hour worker agreed on an assignment until August 2020, then they would be entitled to SSP until then? However, if the employer just ended their hours on that assignment (which I'm sure they can do on a 0 hour contract), then the worker has no assignments and therefore no entitlement to SSP (despite earning more than £120 over the past weeks)? Is this the case? Does my question make sense here?

I don’t know the answer to that.

hsnhendr1989

I suppose to put it in a simpler way: can an agency just de-register a temp worker and take them off the books instead of paying SSP? Or do they have to pay it?

hsnhendr1989

Hi, can someone advise here? If you apply for SSP as a zero hour worker, can the agency just cancel all future work to get out of paying SSP? Please help!

Jeremy535897

You may be interested to read:
https://www.brighthr.com/articles/contracts/agency-worker-rights/zero-hours-contract-sick-pay/