This guide explains how to add Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) using the Absence tab on the employee profile. 

Contents

• Adding Absence
• New starters or migrated employees
• Salaried Workers and SSP
• Variable paid workers and SSP
• Viewing the absence
• Extending the leave?
• Long term sickness
  • Long term sickness cut-off options
• Importing absence

Adding Absence

In the employee profile, click Absence to add a statutory payment.

Within the Absence tab, you can click Create new

This will take you to a list of statutory absences to choose from, in this case, choose Sick leave and the following screen will appear.

Then complete the information on the screen. Once you enter the Start date the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) will calculate. Add end date of the sick leave and click Save.

Average weekly earnings (AWE) for sick absences are automatically calculated using a qualifying period of 8 weeks. This period is determined based on the first full day of sickness.

The SICK qualifying cut off date indicates the last day included in the 8-week period used to calculate AWE, ending on the day before the sickness began.

New starters or migrated employees

If an employee has not been paid through the system - for example, due to being a new starter or part of a migration - the system will display the message:

"No payments found in the relevant period based on qualifying cut-off date."

In these cases, you must manually enter the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE).
Otherwise, the employee may be incorrectly marked as ineligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

In the current pay run, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will appear on the employee’s payslip if:

• The sickness absence falls within the current or a previous pay period, and
• The SSP for that absence has not yet been paid.

If SSP does not appear as expected, please check your settings:

1. Go to Pay Run Settings
2. Select the relevant pay frequency
3. Review the cut-off date to ensure the absence falls within the correct period

Salaried Workers and SSP

If an employee earns above the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), they might be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

In this example, the employee works Monday to Friday and has no previous sickness recorded. The system will:

• Deduct 5 days of salary for the absence.
• Pay SSP for 2 days, as the first 3 days are 'waiting days' and are unpaid.

SSP is paid at the applicable rate for the relevant tax year.

Variable paid workers and SSP

Average weekly earnings (AWE) for sick absences are automatically calculated using a qualifying period of 8 weeks. This period is determined based on the first full day of sickness.

If an employee earns above the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), they might be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

In this example, the employee works Monday to Friday and has no previous sickness recorded and is paid on ad-hoc basis. The system will:

• Pay SSP for 2 days, as the first 3 days are 'waiting days' and are unpaid.

SSP is paid at the applicable rate for the relevant tax year.

Viewing the absence

You can view the absence once saved on the absence tab in the employee profile. This will show you the dates and qualifying dates used for the calculation but won't allow you to accidentally change any details. 

To edit the payment select the pencil icon next to the absence.

Extending the leave?

If a sickness absence has already been recorded and you later discover it has been extended, you can enter the additional dates in a new sickness record. As long as the new start date directly follows the previous end date, the system will treat it as one continuous absence. Please see below example of extending Warren Hyatt's sickness - on previous pay run we processed 30 June - 6 July, now added 7 July and the system is calculating 1 day SSP.

If a sickness absence has already been processed, we recommend recording the extension as a new entry. However, if the original absence has not yet been processed, you can simply edit the existing record to include the extended dates.

Long term sickness

If an employee is on a long term sickness and the end date isn't yet known, you can add the sickness with no end. The system will then calculate the sickness from the start date up to the cut off of the current pay run. This will continue in the following pay run until the end date is added.

Long term sickness cut-off options

When processing SSP for an employee on long-term sickness, you can control when SSP and the corresponding salary deduction stop within the pay period. Go to Pay Run Settings, select the relevant pay frequency, and review the SSP cut-off options:

• Cut-off date - SSP is paid and salary deducted up to the cut-off date of the current pay run (default behaviour)
• End of reference period - SSP is paid and salary deducted through to the end of the reference period. This is useful for employees on long-term sickness where you want the calculation to run to the end of the period rather than the cut-off date, consistent with how parental leave is handled
   

Importing absence

You can import the absence using an import template. Refer to Importing absence - Sickness Leave

Further information and guidance from HMRC about SSP can be found here Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).