SSP days and Holidays

SSP days and Holidays

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An employee has an operation which will take 10 working days recovery before returning to work.

He has 5 days holiday remaining which he will take at full pay. The remaining 5 days will be taken as sick/unable to work.

How many days SSP are due to be paid?

My assumption is 5 days SSP and 5 days holiday, based on PIW = 14 calendar days from date of operation on first day of his holiday, the waiting days are the first 3 days of his holiday and his qualifying days are days 6 to 10 of his normal working week (Mon-Fri).

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
31st Mar 2015 11:53

Interesting point

A Qualifying Day is defined as a day on which the employee normally works or is contracted to work.  Your argument is based on the assumption that a day on holiday is one on which the employee normally works or is contracted to work.  I think a day's holiday cannot be a normal working day or hence, a qualifying day of sickness.

If the otherwise unpaid week of sickness were to be taken before the week of holiday, I am sure you will agree that Mon-Wed of the first week would be waiting days and SSP would only be due for 2 days.  It would be a nonsense that simply reversing the order by taking holiday before sickness absence could produce a different result - 5 days of paid SSP.

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By onicholson
31st Mar 2015 12:02

2 or 7

The answer is either 2 days or 7 days. If you take a holiday as a qualifying day (which the first 3 waiting days in the post assumes), the employee has 10 qualifying days and so has 3 waiting days and 7 SSP days. If you don't treat holiday as a qualifying day, it's 3 waiting days and 2 SSP days.

I agree that a holiday isn't a qualifying day, which leads to 2 days SSP. 5 days SSP is definitely not the answer.

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By philh74a
31st Mar 2015 14:41

Clarification

Thanks for your help. I couldn't find anywhere a definitive answer on whether Holidays can be qualifying days so I phoned HMRC and was put through to the Head Office for guidance.

They said it was 7 days SSP = the fit note needs to have a start date covering the whole absence starting on the 1st day of his operation/holiday, the qualifying days would start on the same day and, after 3 waiting days, he would have 2 days SSP in the 1st week. These 2 days would be 'grossed up' to full pay in the Payroll as they are Holidays. The 2nd week would be SSP only for the 5 days.

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