statutory sick pay

[user1472640125]

Hi all,

I'm currently off work with stress and anxiety, I have been for nine days. My doctor has signed me off and I have been in constant contact with my manager. Today I received a letter asking me to complete a statutory sick form which has puzzled me. My company pay full wages even when employees are off sick long term for a maximum of six months. I've recently posted my sick note to them, why would I need to send in a SSP form? AIBU not to send this back? Should I ring and check if they have received my sick note? Sorry if this is an obvious answer but I'm not too clued up on how SSP works. I thought this was for people who don't have employees that continue to pay them whilst they are off ill.

Ring them.

Have you sent them your sick line yet? In my work you can self certify your sickness by completing a form if you are sick for up to 7 days. After that, you need to submit a sick note from the doctor. If you haven't yet handed in your sick note, could it be an admin error and the letter has been sent automatically?

I'm clutching at straws because I've never heard of any actions required by the employee to claim SSP.

Ring them, they're the only ones who have the correct answers I'm afraid

I'd check that the dates on your doctors note match with the dates you've been off sick. There may be a gap and the company are asking you to self-certify for the beginning date/s.

You can self-certify for the first week of illness, but some companies require you to fill out a self-certification form.

With regards to sickness dates, the company still has to record it through their payroll software and report it to the HMRC regardless of paying occupational sickness (your full pay) or SSP. This is because after 6months of being off sick, you would not be entitled to any payment at all and would be moved to ESA.

I work for nhs and we use the self cert on hmrc website. Doesn't impact on staff eligibility for sick pay.

I believe they can offset your full sickness pay with SSP

I think your company will claim back SSP from govt and use it to (very slightly) offset their cost of paying you full pay when sick.

Thanks for all your replies. I have a feeling it may be they haven't yet received or processed my sick note. I got paid yesterday and all was as it should be, no deductions etc. I shall give them a ring and check. Thanks again x

Yep - they want to claim back the SSP via their PAYE payments and need the form completed to do that.

Can't claim SSP back anymore, Yello - it was a crappy system when you could. It was a really odd calculation that was something like you had to have paid more SSP than NI contributions in the periods for which you were claiming SSP, and then you could only claim back 13% of the difference between the two.

So it benefited no-one unless you were a 3 person company with 2 people off sick

I've just called them and the ssp form has been sent as they haven't received my sick note. Explained that this has been posted to them so its either a postal or admin error. Good job I made a photocopy of original sick note. They have advised me to re-send to them. Thanks for the advice. I know I could of called them in the first place but the reason I'm off work is because of workplace issues so the last thing I wanted was to have to speak to someone there. Thanks for the advice. X

You can't claim back SSP any more, unfortunately, AFAIK it was changed a couple of years ago, and is now paid by the employer.

I don't think you'll get any answers here OP as we've no way of knowing - prob best to ask your employer for clarity.

Sorry X post! Get well soon OP x

They top up SSP to make your full wage. Get well soon