Payroll Resources

08-09 tax tables

Minimum wage

Statutory Maternity Pay

Statutory Paternity Pay

Statutory Sick Pay

Construction Industry Scheme

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Statutory Sick Pay

Under certain conditions, you may have to pay an employee Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). This is the minimum level of payment you must make to an employee who is off work through illness - their contract may entitle them to more than this.
Some people are not entitled to SSP, including:

  • employees whose period of sickness absence is three days or less
  • people you pay who are not your employees, ie those you do not pay secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for, such as freelancers and contractors
  • employees who earn less than the lower earnings limit for NICs - £90 per week for 2008/09
  • employees who have recently claimed state incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance and are entitled to reclaim those benefits

You must pay SSP to employees who cannot work for four or more days in a row, including weekends and holidays, because of illness or disablement. It is payable for the days an employee normally works - these are called qualifying days.

The maximum time for which an employee may be entitled to SSP is 28 weeks for any one period of sickness.

The SSP rate for the 2008/09 tax year is £75.40 per week. This is paid pro rata for fractions of their working week. You must deduct income tax and NICs where appropriate.

You may be able to recover some SSP from the income tax and NICs that you pay to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If your total SSP payments are more than 13 per cent of the total gross Class 1 National Insurance liability for your whole company in the same tax month, you can get the difference back. The amount you may recover is the amount by which the SSP you have paid exceeds 13 per cent of your National Insurance liability.

Read about SSP at the HMRC website.

You must keep records, for at least three years, of any SSP you pay and of the dates of any periods of sickness lasting at least four days in a row.

You can download guidance on what to do if your employee is sick from the HMRC website (PDF).