The government has announced an update to statutory sick pay. Don’t miss out on reclaiming amounts your small business or charity may be entitled to.
Background statutory sick pay
If you run a small businesses or charities you may have had staff off sick more than usual over the last two years. The requirement to pay while staff are ill is an important employment right, but it has a cost for the employer. The burden can be particularly acute if you run a ‘micro’ organisation. One member of staff being off can have a huge impact on you. However, the Covid pandemic has brought this into focus.
Earlier in the pandemic the government allowed employers with fewer than 250 employees to reclaim statutory sick pay where the absence was Covid-19 related. This scheme expired on 30th September 2021.
The current scheme (from January 2022)
Effectively the government has reintroduced the scheme that operated up to September 2021. If you have fewer than 250 employees, you can now reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for absences linked to Covid. This applies to both coronavirus-related sickness and self-isolation.
You will receive repayments will be at the the relevant standard rate of Statutory Sick Pay that you paid to current or former employees. The scheme restarted on 21 December 2021.
What about the period between October-December 2021?
It may seem a bit of an anomaly that sick pay for Covid absences can’t be reclaimed for the period from 1st October to 20th December 2021. However, the government does not appear to have any plans to retrospectively change this.
Keeping up to date
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If you found this useful you may find this blog post on the National Insurance increase worth a read