Statutory Sick Pay and linked periods of incapacity for work

Employers often come across a situation whereby an employee will be signed off work on long term sickness absence, return for a few days and then go back off on long term sick. This raises the question “at what point does an employee’s entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay reset?”.

Currently, provided an employee qualifies, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) can be paid after a waiting period of 3 days for up to 28 weeks for any Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW) or series of linked PIWs lasting up to three years.  If an employee returns from sick leave but then goes off on a further PIW within 8 weeks, this is considered to be a linked absence, and they will continue to receive their entitlement to the remainder of their 28-week entitlement. Only if there has been a period of 8 weeks or more between PIWs will the entitlement to SSP reset.

By way of example, if an employee returns to work for 2 weeks after being in receipt of SSP for 20 weeks of sick leave, their entitlement to 28 weeks of SSP does not restart the next time they are absent because of illness. In this case, the new PIW will be linked to the previous PIW, meaning the employee will only have 8 weeks of SSP entitlement remaining before it is exhausted and they will not have to wait 3 days before it is paid.

As was announce in the recent Employment Rights Bill, the Government is proposing to abolish the initial waiting period before an employee can receive SSP, so it is possible that further revisions to the SSP scheme could be made by the time the Bill actually becomes law.

If you have any questions on SSP or managing long-term sickness absence, please call our Employment Law team today on 0113 207 0000.