Statutory sick pay(SSP) is paid by an employer for the first 28 weeks of incapacity.
SSP usually starts after the first four days of absence. Employees are able to certify themselves a sick for up to
seven days.
There are three qualifying conditions for SSP-
- The employee must be in a "period of incapacity for work" (PIW) which means that he or she must be unable to do their
work for at least four days in a row. Weekends and bank holidays all count as part of the 4day period; and
- There has to be a "period of entitlement" between the start of the period of incapacity and the employee's return to work.
- SSP is only paid for those days on which the employee would normally have worked. If a working pattern is irregular then the employee
should come to an agreement with the employer as to which days should be deemed to be qualifying days.
SSP is only paid for the first twenty eight weeks of incapacity, if the problem persists then the employee should consider applying for
incapacity benefit.
People cannot get statutory sick pay if they
- earn less than £87 per week on average;
- were entitled to either severe disablement allowance(SDA) or incapacity benefit(IB) within the previous 57 days
- are not treated as an employee- self-employed people should apply for short-term incapacity benefit
- were previously entitled to IB or SDA and are in the 104-week linking period
- are pregnant and in the period when they are entitled to maternity pay or maternity allowance.
