Apr 2020
27
Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme Updates
The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate scheme was introduced to repay employers the current amount of Statutory Sick Pay paid to current or former employees on or after 13th March 2020 for periods of sickness. The amount an employer can claim is for up to 2 weeks sick leave for an employee that cannot work due to the following:
- Have coronavirus
- Are self-isolating at home
- Due to public health guidance the employee is shielding
Only the current rate of SSP can be claimed, even if the employer pays the employee more than the current rate of SSP. Employers do not have to have doctor’s fit note from their employees for this claim. An employer’s claim amount cannot be more than the maximum of €800,000 of state aid in accordance with the EU Commission temporary framework. This is when included with other aid obtained under this framework. There is a lower maximum for the aquaculture and fisheries sector of €120,000 and the agriculture sector of €100,000. Unfortunately at present, the online service with HMRC is not available yet in order to claim the COVID-19 Related Statutory Sick Pay. HMRC will announce when this service will be available.
Conditions an employer must meet in order to be eligible to claim under this scheme are:
- An employer has less than 250 employees on 28th February 2020
- An employer has a PAYE scheme that was set up and commenced on or before 28th February 2020
- The employees they are claiming for were on sick leave due to coronavirus
If employers or charities are connected, once they have in total less than 250 employees on or before 28th February, they can avail of this scheme. All employees such as full-time and part-time employees, employees on zero-hour or flexible contracts or employees with agency contracts are covered under this scheme.
The employer must keep records for the statutory sick payments they wish to claim from HMRC such as:
- National insurance number for each employee being claimed for
- Start and end dates for the period of sick leave the employee could not work
- The reason why the employee could not work
- Details of the qualifying dates in the period the employee could not work
Join BrightPay for a free COVID-19 webinar where we discuss what you need to know about remote working, processing SSP, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and placing employees on furlough leave.
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