Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid to employees who are unable to work because of illness. This is the legal minimum you must pay your employee.

This article will cover:

• Add SSP for an employee (video)
  • Make changes to basic pay
• Link absence and waiting days
• Employee doesn't qualify for SSP

Before you start

Before entering SSP for your employee, there are a few key things to keep in mind:

• Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW): Check if the employee's sickness qualifies as a PIW. A PIW refers to a period of sickness lasting four or more consecutive days, including non-working days, bank holidays, and weekends. If the sickness is less than four days, it does not meet the criteria for a PIW, and SSP is not applicable.
• Average Weekly Earnings (AWE): Check if the employee's AWE meet or exceed the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) for National Insurance. This is a requirement for qualifying for SSP.
• Qualifying Days: Identify the days the employee normally works, as these are considered qualifying days. These days can be counted as waiting days and can be paid SSP.
• Waiting Days: Understand that the first three days of a PIW are considered waiting days and are not payable. After these waiting days, SSP becomes due. However, if multiple PIWs are linked, the waiting days only apply to the first PIW. Take this into account when processing SSP.

Add SSP for an employee

1. Go to Payroll.
2. Select the Pay Runs tab.
3. Open the pay run.
4. Select arrow next to the employee you want to pay SSP to.
5. Select Actions.
6. Choose Pay statutory leave.
7. Select Statutory sick pay from the dropdown options.
8. Select the start and end dates. The waiting days will default to 3.
9. QuickBooks will automatically calculate the AWE. You can override this if you need to.
10. In the Basic Pay Adjustment dropdown list, choose one of the following options:
    • Reduce basic pay by statutory amount: Pays the Basic pay after deducting the SSP.
    • Do not pay basic pay: Pays only the SSP, excluding the Basic pay.
    • Pay basic pay as entered: Pays the Basic pay along with the SSP.
11. In the Advanced options, the qualifying days will default to Monday to Friday. You can change this if necessary.
12. Select Save.

Make changes to basic pay

If there's an incorrect basic pay adjustment for an employee before the pay run is created, here's how to fix it:

1. Open the pay run.
2. Place your cursor over the SSP line on the pay run.
3. Select the red square icon.
4. Make the necessary changes. You will see the updated waiting days, SSP days and the amount of SSP paid.

Additionally, you'll notice the corresponding deduction of salary for the affected days. The employee won't get paid their regular wage and SSP at the same time.

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Link absence and waiting days

If the employee is absent due to illness for more than 4 consecutive days within an eight-week period, their SSP will be linked. This means that the employee won't have 3 waiting days deducted.

If you switched from a different payroll software to QuickBooks, make sure to see if the employe has any other instances of SSP. If they do, check if the current sickness is connected to their previous absence within 8 weeks.

1. Go to Employees or Payroll menu.
2. Select the Employees tab.
3. Select the employee who needs the SSP Adjustment.
4. Select Statutory/Occupational Pay.
5. Select Add.
6. Choose Statutory Sick Leave from the dropdown options.
7. Enter the necessary information.
8. Select Advance options.
9. Next to waiting days, select Override.
10. Enter "0" as the number of waiting days because the waiting days were already considered when the sickness info was transferred to QuickBooks.
11. Check the amount to be paid.
12. Select Save when you're done.

This process will make sure that the employee gets the right SSP payment.

The waiting days are counted, and if the sickness lasts less than 28 weeks, the employee gets paid for the full days.

As an employer, you'll need to keep track of the linked SSP and make sure not to pay the employee more than 28 weeks of SSP. Remember, you can't get money back from HMRC because it's not a payment that can be reclaimed.

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Employee doesn't qualify for SSP

If an employee isn't eligible for SSP, it could be because they have already received the maximum 28 weeks of SSP or they don't earn enough. In these cases, you'll need to fill out an SSP1 form.

If you won't be paying SSP:

1. Go to Employees or Payroll menu.
2. Select the Employees tab.
3. Select the employee who needs the SSP Adjustment.
4. Select Statutory/Occupational Pay.
5. Select Add.
6. Choose Statutory Sick Leave from the dropdown options.
7. Enter the necessary information.
8. Select Choose not to pay SSP.
9. Choose a reason from the dropdown options.

The pay run will show that no SSP has been paid. Once you finalise the pay run:

1. Go to the Employee's details.
2. Select Leave balances.
3. Select SSP1 form.

If you are switching from another payroll system and have an employee who is currently on sick leave, you can change the waiting days to 0 in the pay run. You can also manage the AWE in the pay run.

If you're employee has already received the maximum 28 weeks of SSP:

• You won't be able to pay any more SSP and you'll see a warning in the View log.
• You can use the Documents section in the employee's details to store any sick certificates.
• If you need to set up the days an employee works:
  1. Go to the employee's details.
  2. Select Pay run defaults.
  3. Select Standard week.
  4. Select Advanced to edit the days.

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