The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme will allow small to medium-sized employers to reclaim the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) - increased on 6 April 2020 from £94.25 per week to £95.85 per week - from the first day of absence up to the maximum of two weeks in respect of each eligible employee.
This repayment will only cover employees who are unable to work either because they are sick with coronavirus or they are self-isolating at home following Government advice. Employers can use this scheme to recover SSP paid to current or former employees for periods of sickness starting on or after 13 March 2020.
Employers can use this scheme to reclaim SSP if they had a PAYE payroll scheme which started on or before 28 February 2020. The employer must have had fewer than 250 employees as at 28 February 2020.
The scheme covers all types of employment contracts, namely full-time and part-time employees, employees on agency contracts and employees on flexible or zero-hours contracts.
HMRC will let us know when the scheme will end.
Employees do not have to provide a medical certificate for employers to reclaim SSP. However, employers are expected to keep records of all statutory sick payments they wish to reclaim from the HMRC for a period of three years, including:
- Reason why employee was unable to work;
- Start and end date of each period the employee was unable to work;
- Details of SSP qualifying days when the employee was unable to work;
- National Insurance numbers of all employees who have been paid SSP.
HMRC is currently working on an online service which will enable eligible employers to reclaim SSP. It is expected that HMRC will provide some further guidance in relation to when the online service will be available and how eligible employers can make claims in due course.
Please note: Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice and we are not liable for any reliance on the information provided. This is a rapidly changing subject, and whilst correct at the time of writing, circumstances may have changed since publication. Please refer to Gov.uk for up-to-date advice on the Government’s response to this issue.
To find out more about anything covered in this article, or to discuss the potential impact of COVID-19 on your business, please contact Neha Sarin or another member of Thrings’ Employment and Immigration team.
