SSP Recovery No Longer Possible

From next month, it will no longer be possible for an employer to recover from HMRC any statutory sick payments made to employees. Currently, some SSP payments can be recovered via the Percentage Threshold Scheme. The Scheme enables employers to recover any SSP that has been paid in a tax month that is in excess of 13% of the gross Class 1 National Insurance Contributions for that month. With effect from 6^th April 2014, this scheme will be removed and employers will not be able to recover any SSP. Recovery of SSP paid for sick leave which occurred before the end of 2013/2014 is still permissible until the end of 2015/2016. At the same time, the requirement for employers to keep SSP records will also be abolished. However, HMRC state that employers will still need to keep sufficient records to show that they complying with SSP legislation, should HMRC ever need to see them. Therefore, despite the ‘abolition’ of SSP record keeping, it seems that employers will still need to keep records on: - length of sickness absence; - whether any Periods of Incapacity for Work were formed (where incapacity lasted for at least 4 days); - evidence that the employer has paid SSP for the relevant days. In reality, therefore, the abolition of SSP records appears to have little effect on current employer administration. For more information on Statutory Sick Pay, please call us on 0844 892 2772.