SSP

Angelcrackers

Hi

I've tried to find this out but confused myself. I am being advised by my doctor to take a period of reduced working hours due to current illhealth. I won't get paid by my work for any hours I don't work as sickly was already used up. 
If for example I do half my hours a week and then the rest is non working how would the SSP work?

I work 28 hours a week over 4 days at present. 

LinLui

Can you clarify, I think you meant to say that your sick pay / leave had been used up? Have you already had sick pay from your employer, and for how long? 

chrisbur

The new absences will have the normal rules of SSP applied to them.  
If any SSP is due it will link with the PIW you are on at the moment as it will be within eight weeks but entitlement will be dependent on the normal SSP rules.
It will only be paid for full qualifying days (QDs)when no work is done so for example if your normal QDs are say Monday to Thursday and you worked say 3 hours each day then SSP would not be due, if however you work 6 hours on Monday and Tuesday then Wednesday and Thursday would be considered for SSP.
For SSP to be paid you need 4 consecutive days of sickness on which no work is done but these do not have to be QDs so as your two working days (QDs) would have five non working days before and after you would have the minimum 4 days.
Bit complicated and can be better explained if you have an idea how you are going to reduce your time.
Best to go for fewer days working longer hours then shorter hours on more days.  

The maximum payment for SSP would be the total paid since the start of your sickness PIW

Angelcrackers

Sorry yes, I've been a bit unclear. 
I had a period of ill health at the beginning of the year which meant I used up sick leave paid by the company. That won't reset until January. 

My last SSP was paid in June I think.  The illness is linked.
My normal days are Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri.

This is problematic because actually it's the length of the days which is causing the problem. 

So my options then would be 

A- Changing to work 
Monday - Wednesday I'd get SSP?

B- I work my four days but 5 hours instead of 7 and I wouldn't get anything?

If I go with 3 instead of 4 days how much SSP per week would I get? 
At the end of this I'd need to do what's best for my health, but I can't really afford to do it without SSP to help. 

chrisbur

Angelcrackers said:

Sorry yes, I've been a bit unclear. 
I had a period of ill health at the beginning of the year which meant I used up sick leave paid by the company. That won't reset until January. 

My last SSP was paid in June I think.  The illness is linked.
My normal days are Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri.

This is problematic because actually it's the length of the days which is causing the problem. 

So my options then would be 

A- Changing to work 
Monday - Wednesday I'd get SSP?

B- I work my four days but 5 hours instead of 7 and I wouldn't get anything?

If I go with 3 instead of 4 days how much SSP per week would I get? 
At the end of this I'd need to do what's best for my health, but I can't really afford to do it without SSP to help. 

I think that you would be best to discuss this with your employer as for me to work out anything I would need to know your qualifying days, and this is best agreed with your employer. 

Angelcrackers

I was hoping to have some idea before speaking to them as didn't want to agree to something I can't afford and then have stress on top of everything else. So it's not possible to say ok I would work Mon- Wed instead of Mon -Thursday for the next two months? I assumed I would be entitled to then get SSP for the one day on a phased reduction. But I can't work out if it's £116.75/7 x 1 or £116.75/5 X1. But you think it is more complicated than that?

Thank you for your info.

chrisbur

The way that SSP is paid is to take the full weekly figure and divide that by the number of qualifying days in the week then multiply that by the number of qualifying days to be paid.
So if you are due a full week of SSP it will always come to the weekly SSP rate.
If we go back to your old pattern you would probably have four qualifying days Mon Tue Thurs Fri and three non qualifying days.  So four qualifying days which if you were sick Mon Tue and back to work on Thurs you would be entitled to 2/4 or a half of a weeks SSP.
There are two problems here first I cannot be 100% sure your QDs were as I suggested, SSP is a bit complicated and sometimes employers might go for something else.
Second you are suggesting a change in your work pattern.  Would your employer then say your QDs are now Mon Tue Wed and you are working them so no SSP.  Hopefully they would not but I cannot know what your employer will do and if they did you might be able to appeal this with HMRC; but I have no idea what they might say.

As a sort of guide 
If they say 4 QDs a week and you work 3 of them then one day SSP at 1/4 of the weekly rate.
If they say 5 QDs a week and you work 3 of them then two days SSP at 2/5 of the weekly rate.

Angelcrackers

I see, yes I understand that a bit better now. Thank you so much.  I feel like I have enough I can at least speak up and will know what might be possible. Many thanks. It's a worrying time as I didn't think I'd still be ill months later and I'm worrying about the cost.