Coronavirus: Sick pay snafu confuses employers
As coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, employers need to understand how the statutory sick pay (SSP) rules should be applied for employees who are not necessarily sick, but who must self-isolate.
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The government with its usual don't care attitude announced in the national news that SSP would be payable from Day One without consulting employers or passing any relevant legislation. Needless to say the majority of businesses have a very low opinion of Boris Johnson, the government in general and HMRC in particular. So they are not going to rush like eager beavers to implement this new rule unless forced to do so.
Whilst the majority of employees are reliable, every office has some employees who will not hesitate to take advantage of the CoronaVirus situation and take time off "because they are scared of catching it from other staff members, usually on a Monday morning". It is up to the hapless employer as usual to take on the job of policing this mess on behalf of the government.
What happens to an employee who has taken time off due to this virus situation and then finds he/she can't afford to live on £94.25 per week for two whole weeks and comes back to work early before the incubation period is satisfied?
Quote: "or non-legislative guidance on whether an employee is eligible for SSP, purely as a result of it being a tangible sickness or a precautionary one, see HMRC’s Statutory Payments Manual 1102000".
This says for an employee to be eligible to be considered for SSP, the primary condition is:
“they must be unfit for work under their contract of employment due to physical or mental incapacity, or have been advised to refrain from work for precautionary or convalescent reasons. Or be a carrier of or have been in contact with an infectious or contagious disease and been issued with a statement from the appropriate medical officer advising them not to go to work”.
This would suggest that 'self-isolating' by choice is not the result of a statement to do so from an appropriate medical officer. Government and social media hype should not therefore be taken as relevant evidence of advice. In such circumstances then, the employee has freely chosen to be absent from work and is entitled to £Zilch.
How quickly is payroll software going to cope with the proposed emergency measures for SSP relating to corona Virus? Like most such software ours automatically calculates SSP where applicable and is programmed to disallow the first three days. To apply the new 'day 1' basis presumably I will need updated software. Is the new 'day 1' rule just for Virus related absence or for all SSP - do I need to still apply the usual 'old' rules if eg a staff member is off sick due to say being incapacitated in a car crash rather than due to the virus? What about amending software to reflect the apparent reintroduction of deductabililty of SSP (or is it just virus related SSP?) against overall PAYE/NI paid to HMRC - as announced today if only for max two week absence (if that is that what the Budget said?). I foresee software mayhem....and when is all of this intended to apply - is it with immediate effect now?
The legislation gives a rolling window of start of incapacity of 54 days(?? needs checking/verifying) so the cumulative number of days off will all count to the first 4 days if they fall within the given window, e.g. being off sick one day of each week would mean the employee would see eligibility (obvs on other factors) for payment starting immediately they were next off (within that rolling window)
The sickness does not need to be the same each time either