Do I have to pay my employee sick pay?

If an employee is eligible to receive Satutory Sick Pay (SSP) you must pay this even though you can no longer reclaim this statutory payment from HMRC.  

An eligible employee will earn more than £156 per week and will then be entitled to receive £88.45 per week (2015-16) which is spread over the number of days worked per week.  An employee earning less than this is not an eligible employee and therefore is not entitled to receive SSP.

The first three days of any period of sickness is unpaid unless you have a company sick pay scheme which covers this period.  Statutory Sick Pay is therefore payable from the fourth day.  If an employee works 5 days per week they will be entitled to £17.69 per day of sickness from the fourth day.

You are only responsible for paying SSP if your employee has told you they are sick within the time frame you have set out in their employment contract or within 7 days if you haven't set out a time frame.

An employee must provide a sick certificate from their doctor for any period of absence in excess of 7 days.