Sickness pay- anyone know how all this is calculated?

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I’m currently off work, won’t go into details but employer being supportive etc and I have medical evidence etc.

Where I work it is 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay, which I, very grateful for. I’m not really clued up on payroll and how things work but I think that I’ve been paid full pay, but this has been partly subsided by SSP for a 28 weeks so my employer is paying the remaining after the SSP is applied.

I asked to get some help understanding what the half pay amount will be when it goes to after 6 months, my treatment doesn’t finish within the first 6 months. They’ve been super helpful but it seems a lot less than I anticipated, by a few hundred pounds.

Is this because the SSP is no longer available and they won’t pay the actual full half pay amount or is it because I will be taxed as if I was on my full pay and that means my tax at half pay is likely to be higher? The other possibility is they may have miscalculated it!

Anyway, if anyone knows anything about how all this is calculated I’d be really grateful for any pointers.

If your policy says 6 months half pay that is what you should get

Whether it includes any SSP or not it will be half pay.

You pay tax on the amount you are actually paid only. Not on what you would have earned.

Check your tax code is correct and speak to your employer about the details of their scheme.

Thank you cabbage king.

Double check it. It should be roughly half your usual take home, if it isnt it normally increases a bit because someone's income has dropped a tax bracket or ni contributions. Are there any fixed cost deductions like a season ticket loan that might be skewing things?

When your 28 weeks of SSP ends, you can make a claim for new style ESA even if still being paid occupational sick pay. This is assuming you have paid sufficient Ni contributions over the past 2-3 years.

I had contribution based ESA when my pay went to half pay. It was 5 years ago now but I assume that's still the case.

Thank you, I didn’t know about ESA. Have no idea if I am eligible, certainly paid enough NI but worth applying for.

I did think I would get roughly half my normal pay (after pension) but it is about £500 less than I anticipated. The only thing coming off is my union payment which is £20 a month so hardly anything.

My treatments don’t stop until April time and I’m likely to need to a month or so to recover, if doctor signs me off! Hoping he does as will be getting over chemotherapy, radiotherapy and then starting a decade of ongoing drugs!

Do you do unsociable hours at work? If so, it may have been calculated on your base rate.

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Thank you, I didn’t know about ESA. Have no idea if I am eligible, certainly paid enough NI but worth applying for.

I did think I would get roughly half my normal pay (after pension) but it is about £500 less than I anticipated. The only thing coming off is my union payment which is £20 a month so hardly anything.

My treatments don’t stop until April time and I’m likely to need to a month or so to recover, if doctor signs me off! Hoping he does as will be getting over chemotherapy, radiotherapy and then starting a decade of ongoing drugs!

Once you become eligible for new style ESA ( when your employer sends you an SSP1 form to say your SSP is stopping), if you are undergoing chancer treatment you would get the higher rate of ESA ( £113.55 per week ) after the first few months. So you would get assessment rate of around £75 for the first few month of ESA then rising to £113.55 per week paid fortnightly. Make sure when you apply that they know you are having cancer treatment, you will not need a work capability assessment and will be automatically awarded the highest rate after the 3 month assessment period. It is very easy to apply for new style ESA onlie via the Gov.uk site.

Thank you again everyone. I’ve just put my ESA application in. I wouldn’t have known about this if it wasn’t for your helpful comments. Thank so very much. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but if I get it, it will be a tremendous help xxx