A payroll client says that one of her employees went on sick leave on 2nd September and on the 6th September she paid her a full weeks pay instead of sick pay.
I have asked for a copy of the sick note so I can see the exact dates on it as the client didn't sound too sure of the dates.
Because the client has paid the employee for a full week does this affect the PIW days at all? According to the client she shouldn't be due any sick pay for that week because she was paid her normal pay but I have never come across this before and don't know which date would be the start of her sick leave.
Do I totally disregard the weeks pay and just put in her sick pay dates as it says on her sick note? Or would I miss out the first week of sick leave as she has been paid by her employer for this and start it from the following week?
I used to get full pay at my old job. I thought they just claimed an SSP amount back from HMRC to offset against this, after so many days? I can ask my guru tomorrow if no one has an answer.
Payroll is the devil
-- Edited by FoxAccountancyServices on Thursday 12th of September 2013 08:52:02 PM
I'm not 100% sure but I would be tempted to treat it as a company sick pay scheme instead of SSP for the first week. I don't think it should affect the PIW at all - if she has a doctor's note then she should be treated as unfit for work. It looks to me like the employer just choose to pay as normal but this doesn't affect the period of illness. I hope that makes sense and it would be interesting to hear other people take on this.
Sounds like she paid the employee full pay in error? If so can she explain to employee that her sick pay will come this week? Then she can still start the sick pay at the proper date and pay nothing this week and employee gets two days ssp after the waiting days? If there is a contract in place to say sick leave will be paid in full then you either calculate as company sick pay as Pinkdon suggests or maybe pay as ssp but add a pay element 'make up to basic' to reflect the payment made and if she is able to claim relief on ssp there will at least be a bit to get back.
Under current legislation you can now only claim back SSP paid under the Percentage Threshold Scheme. This is designed to help employers who have a large percentage of their workforce off sick at the same time. Currently is stands at 13% of the employer's gross Class 1 NIC for that month.
Pauline.. would you mind giving a working example? Say, I earn £200 a day, for a 5 day week, and I am off sick for the 10 days in a row, giving necessary bumf from doctor. My boss pays me full wage.
You take the gross NI, ie Ers and Ees for the fiscal month that the sickness was in and calculate 13% of that. If SSP is higher than that figure you get to claim the difference. Like Pauline says if a large percentage of employees are off there may be a claim or in practice if there are only a few employees it can work. Therefore it isn't possible to give an answer to your scenario without knowing what the gross ni would have been for the month.
