Statutory Sick Pay - Are you entitiled to anything more than £80 a week?

[piximon]

Last month DH had a really nasty eye problem which didn't want to go, he had to have loads of tests done in hospital and is still using drops now as his vision in one eye has not completely improved.

In all he took 3.5 weeks off work sick, the first being self cert and the following being doctors certs. He hadn't taken time off from work before so we didn't realise he wouldn't get normal pay.

This month he opened his pay slip to discover he's received SSP for the time off and in all earned around £400. Our monthly bills come to more than this and it's Xmas so I really don't know how his employers can be so shitty about the whole thing, but anyway is there anything else he might be entitled to? I'm a SAHM to our 4 with one on the way and could do without the stress.

The level of statutory sick pay is set by the government, not by the employers, and there is no obligation on employers to pay more than SSP to someone who is off sick. Check your dh's contract to make sure he's not entitled to more, but if the contract says SSP, then that is it. If your dh gets on well with his employers, could he ask for a salary advance, to be paid back, say, over the next 6 months? It would mean less pay in the coming months, but it might help your budget a bit. Otherwise the only other thing I can think of is to contact your local benefits office and see if there is anything you are entitled to claim, or find out from your local library if there are any hardship funds you could apply to.

Piximon see here about sick pay entitlements - SSP is what you get if your employer doesn't operate a more favourable occupational sick pay scheme. It's not necessarily a case of his employers being 'shitty' - they will need to be consistent with whatever sick pay scheme they operate with everyone - presumably nobody gets more than SSP when they are off sick, so they can't make any exception because it's Christmas/it's the only source of income/any other reason.

It's rubbish I know, and I do have every sympathy with you, it must be even worse having this happen at this time of year as you say. Get DH to double check his contract or handbook or any other documentation he has to check there is no other scheme his employers operate, just in case.

My only other suggestion would be to ask his employers for an advance, so that the impact of the time he's had off is spread over two or three months.

I can't think of anything else I can suggest to help you I'm afraid.

x-post Roskva!

Agree that he needs to check his contract and ask for a possible advance on future wages.

I'm an employer who can only pay SSP, as my business has strict rules about staffing levels. If an employee is off sick I have to replace them, which means using agency staff. If I paid anything above SSP our staffing bills would probably put us out of business (we have 18 employees.)

Sorry. Forgot to change back.

What I'm trying to say is that not all employers who pay SSP or SMP are 'shitty.'

Wise minds think alike, flowerybeanbag

It's the same for me, chuffed - my business simply can't afford to pay for cover and pay full pay to someone off sick.

nothing i can add to what has already been posted on the ssp issue, but you may be entitled to more tax credit, check if you have any sickness insurance on anything else (mortgage or whatever) and also check it all out with the benefits website (really hope this link works)
www.direct.gov

oops no i don't think it does. sorry!!
go googling sickness benefits advice?

www.direct.gov.uk/en

last attempt

I'm really sorry for anyone I may have offended, I didn't mean to imply that employers who pay only SSP are bad. I phrased the email badly through my tears.

I've been ranting off and on for months on the multiples thread about all the problems his employers have put us through (agreed paternity pay then refused to pay it so DH forced to use his holiday or lose 2 weeks money), DH had to do night cover (on top of day job) within weeks of DTs being born), phoning at weekends/nights, told us we were relocating to one area so we arrange to move there, then relocate company to another area, agree a payrise then postpone it, etc..).

DH really loves what he does, so much so that most nights he logs into the company website to check every thing's ok, answer any tickets, speak to his night workers etc, he's even used weekends to do unpaid work dropping things at other sites. While he was off sick he still worked from home as much as he possibly could.

As one of the fastest growing ISP around I know that money is an issue, (DH is in management so knows the company finances). I don't suppose it helps that DH is a married dad of almost 6 kids with two bosses barely out of school, one of whom still lives at home.

Really do appreciate the advice. I guess our credit card will get us through but there must be other people who get stuck in the same situation and I'd have thought there'd be more help available. I don't know whether as DH was too sick to work for that period, I would have qualified for benefits for the duration?

He sounds like a fantastic employee, piximon. I'm sorry, too, if my post sounded harsh.
I think it would be worth in the future getting any agreed payrises, paid paternity leave etc. in writing.

I also hope they will agree to make an exception to their policy and pay him something above SSP or at least pay an advance on future wages. The problem is, and I know this from personal experience, if an employer makes an exception for one employee and does not then do so for others in similar circumstances, they can end up being sued in a tribunal for not following 'custom and practice.'

flowerybeanbag gives good advice.

gigglewitch I googled as you said and found that Income support would have given us over £90 as a couple, so I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if it's too late to claim.

If SSP is claimable back by employers I don't know why benefits people can't have a couples rate of that if there's only one working partner?

Bauble99, he is a pretty good employee, he retrained in IT a few years ago when being made redundant meant he could afford a life change. He knew it was what he wanted to do and as a result is very dedicated, he took over a £10,000 pay cut by changing fields.

flowerybeanbag, I'm going to get him to check his contract when he gets back (has over a 6 hr round trip a day since they relocated). There's only him at his level and two owners/directors above, everyone else are shift workers and have different rules.

piximon sounds like you have had a rough ride with DH's employers. Hope you get some joy out of his contract - there may be something extra which has been overlooked, you never know.

It sounds like there have been lots of issues which you have posted about elsewhere. If any of these still need resolving or if anything else happens do start a thread here in Employment. Myself and lots of others check here regularly and can give lots of help with anything like this if you would find it useful .

thanks bubble btw

piximon. Is this his employers' first business venture? They sound very disorganised and I wonder if they initially agreed to Paternity Pay without realising that they couldn't reclaim it like SMP.

From the job you've described I can't see how the 'custom and practice' rule could be used against his employers in the future if they do make an exception and pay him above SSP. He is in a unique position within the company. Again, flowerybeanbag will probably be able to clarify this.

Has he talked to them about this? Can he sit down and calmly explain the situation you are in? They may not realise how badly this loss of salary has affected him.

I've lent money to employees who were struggling on a couple of occasions. That is a personal thing, and so doesn't create 'custom and practice', and is a lot easier to administrate than a salary advance.

Btw, employers can only claim ssp if the total amount of ssp paid at any given time exceeds a certain percentage of payroll. So generally unless there is more than one employee off sick, the employer gets nothing back.

It is their first business venture, straight out of uni (now in mid/late twenties). DH was their 4th member of staff, but they've expanded drastically since he joined. Some things don't even occur to them because they do still live at home, have no kids, etc.

He sat down with them today and was told the accountant calculated the sum and if he's not happy they can ask him to recheck his figures. DH mentioned that had they given him some idea before he could have tried to arrange a loan/see if there was other help he could get, but it went over their heads. Ironically he has a review due by the end of the week to discuss wages.

Some people, especially techy people, don't seem to get the point that their business is only as good as their staff. And accountants tend to see numbers, not people. Wish there was something I could suggest that might help, but I'm out of ideas.