Sick pay ― legal points

Produced by Tolley in association with

Employment Tax

Guidance

An employee who is unable to work because of sickness may still be entitled to pay during any period of sick absence. Such entitlement may be due to:

•
contractual sick pay
•
statutory sick pay (SSP)

This guidance note covers both types of sick pay.

See also the Statutory sick pay (SSP) guidance note in the ‘Mechanics of payroll’ sub-topic for more on the administration of SSP as part of payroll operation.

Temporary amendments were also made to the treatment of SSP and SSP recovery, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. For details on this see Simon’s Taxes A8.213, and the GOV.UK guidance, including Sick pay from day one for those affected by coronavirus, and Coronavirus sick pay scheme opens for applications.

ACAS provides guidance on all elements of holiday, sickness and leave.

Contractual sick pay

An employee’s contract of employment may contain provisions entitling them to be paid during any periods of sick absence. An employer does not have to agree to any contractual terms entitling their employees to sick pay. However,

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Sarah Bradford

Director at Writetax Ltd

Sarah Bradford BA(Hons), ACA, CTA (Fellow) is the director of Writetax Ltd, a company providing tax technical writing services on tax and National Insurance, and also of its sister company, Writetax Consultancy Services Ltd. Sarah writes widely on tax and National Insurance and is the author of several books.

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