The Chancellor announced measures for statuory sick pay (SSP) to help small businesses through the Coronavirus pandemic.
SSP has always been available for directors and employees. However, because of Covid-19, the following changes have been implemented.
The amount that you can claim for SSP is £94.25 per week. Therefore, if you claim for the two week period, this would be 2 x £94.25, so £188.50.
- Directors and employees who are unable to work because they have to self-isolate due to Coronavirus (not for some other illness) can pay themselves SSP
- SSP is now refundable from HMRC (whereas previously, unlike Statutory Maternity Pay, it was simply a cost that the business was obliged to pay)
- The refund will cover up to 2 weeks SSP per eligible employee who has been off work due to Covid19
- Employers do need to hold documentation on absences, but don’t need a doctors note.
- SSP is payable from day 1 of self-isolation (previously it was from day 4 onwards)
Note, however, that if you can work from home, and do even a small amount of work when self-isolating, then you can’t claim SSP.
Note also that the government doesn’t yet have a repayment mechanism of this SSP in place; they are working on that, so we don’t know when that will be up and running.
If you’d like to claim it, please let your Nimble Contact know, so that they can discuss this with you.