Partner Article

Don’t be left feeling ill by missing out on your statutory sick pay claims

Employers are being urged to claim their statutory sick pay (SSP) before the threshold scheme is abolished in the new financial year. From April 6th 2014 employers will no longer be able to make future claims for SSP.

At present employers are able to claim if within a tax month the total SSP paid to employees is more than 13% of the employer’s and employees’ National Insurance Contributions within the same period. The abolishment of SSP is expected to hit small business employers in the pocket the hardest, as well as companies with a high proportion of employees off on sick leave.

There is no need to panic too soon as employers will have up until the end of the 2015/2016 financial year to claim relevant SSP due for the periods before April 5th 2014. So what do you need to do?

As an employer it is essential to review your accounts to ensure all relevant SSP has been claimed; if it hasn’t, make sure to make any late claims prior to the April 5th 2016 deadline. Will anything be set in place to help employers? Replacing the scheme will be the Health and Work Assessment and Advisory Service.

The aim behind the new scheme is to help employers’ lower sickness and better manage absences; unfortunately it doesn’t come into effect until autumn, so there will be a transitional period, and it is expected to involve employers incurring more direct costs.

The new scheme will make occupational health advisers more readily available to employers. State-funded assessments by health professionals for employees, who have been absent from work for more than four weeks, will be available.

However, if the employee undergoes treatment, for instance physiotherapy, the employer will pick up the bill. Under present tax legislation if the employer pays for treatment costs it is seen as an assessable benefit in kind to the employee.

This in turn creates an income tax liability for the employee and a National Insurance charge for the employer. The slight good news is that under the new scheme treatment paid for by employers, up to an annual cap of £500 per employee, will not be subject to income tax or National Insurance.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tindle’s .