Employer Handbook for Statutory Sick Pay

Other information that may be useful

Operating your own Occupational Sick pay (OSP) scheme

Even if you operate your own occupational or work based sick pay scheme you need to be aware that the provisions of the SSP Scheme still need to be taken into account when deciding when you need to give them form SSP1 or if you are able to make a recovery under the Percentage threshold Scheme (PTS).

If your scheme makes Occupational Sick Pay (OSP) payments to your employees that are as much as or more than the SSP rate for each day that your employee is sick and their entitlement to OSP can continue for at least28 weeks, then you do not need to operate all aspects of the SSP Scheme and your record keeping requirements are reduced.

This is popularly known as opting out, but in fact this does not mean that you should ignore the provisions of the SSP Scheme completely, or that the rules of your scheme can override those of the SSP Scheme.

If you do operate your own scheme you do not need to notify HMRC. However, you must still keep records and be able to show them on request to HMRC.

In addition, regardless of whether you operate your own OSP scheme, you need to consider whether or not your employee would be entitled to SSP at the beginning of their period of sickness.

If your employee is not entitled to SSP (whether or not they are entitled to sick pay under your occupational scheme) you will need to give them form SSP1 so that any entitlement to IB/ESA can be considered.

You will also need to give them form SSP1 when they reach their period of maximum underlying entitlement to SSP regardless of whether they continue to have any entitlement under your OSP scheme. Where it is known that your employee's period of sickness is expected to continue for more than 28 weeks, you should give them form SSP1 at the 23rd week of SSP to ensure that a claim to IB/ESA is made on time.

If you operate your own occupational scheme, you may still be able to recover some or all of the payments you have made, but only up to the statutory rate of SSP under the rules of the PTS. However, unless you qualify under the PTS, you are not entitled to make any recovery of SSP or your occupational equivalent.

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