Sick pay

[Ozzie30]

Hi there

We have a relatively new nanny and she has been off sick for the last week. After our last and first ever nanny took so much time off sick, I changed the contract for this one to say the below. I was thinking of paying her 2 normal days pay and then the rest just SSP as to be honest I've had to take the days off work unpaid as I had no holiday left so I can't really afford to pay her all the days full pay.

My question is how do I go about the SSP bit? Do I pay her it (how much is it?) and then try to claim it back somehow? I'm not really sure how it works as with my last nanny I just paid her full pay on all the days she was sick (which kind of encouraged more sick days and I don't want to do that again!)

Anyone can assist?

SICK PAY

11.1 The Employer will operate Statutory Sick Pay (?SSP?) in accordance with statutory provisions. Any payment over and above SSP will be made at the absolute discretion of the Employer.

How to Calculate SSP may be a useful start point, it links to a SSP calculator which goes through lots of questions, so you need the answers to those questions before you can run it. You may want to read E14 (pdf).

Are you using a payroll agency? If so, could you not give them the dates your employee was sick and let them calculate SSP?

Oh! I am using one actually. So do I just tell them to pay 2 days normally and then 3 days SSP? I didn't realise they did this for you? Don't I have to claim it back or something or do they do all that?

Call them and they will talk you through what info they need.
Tell them that you are wanting to pay in full for the first two days (you may need to tell them the number of hours, or the daily pay rate).

Note: There are 3 qualifying days before SSP starts, so you are paying full for 2 days, which will leave 1 day of no pay, then SSP for any other days.

Statutory Funding - though talk to your payroll service first.

Has your nanny told you when they will be back at work?

Tell the agency the days she was off sick and what you want to pay and they should do it all for you. Note that SSP does not kick in for the first 3 days so if she was off the whole week she will only be entitled to SSP for Thursday and Friday.

oops, cross-post

Can I just ask on this thread to clarify for my nanny employment, if they go off sick for a whole week and SSP kicks in after 3 days, does the nanny get any pay for the first 3 days? I also have the statatory sick pay included in our contract after our first nanny employment.

If contract says that the nanny will get SSP only, then there is NO PAY at all for the first 3 working days (known as qualifying days) off sick. It would be entirely up to the employer if they paid anything for those 3 days.

For general reference (it is probably too late for Ozzie and 2plus1), if the contract doesn't say anything about sick pay, that is the same as saying SSP only. This is because the contract is an agreement that the employee will turn up for work and you will pay him. If the employee is not able to fulfil his part of the bargain because he is not fit for work the contract is said to be temporarily 'frustrated' and you do not have to fulfil your part of the bargain either. Note that this doesn't change anything else about the contract, and once he returns to work everything continues as normal, and of course the employees statutory rights (including the right to receive SSP) are not affected.

Also, if you do decide not to reduce pay during sickness you can still pay SSP and make up the difference with normal pay - you can then claim the SSP back from HMRC.