Earlier this week Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a raft of measures to support business in general and hospitality businesses in paticular in the light of a dramatic growth in COVID-19 infections.
As a measure to support SMEs, the government is reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (SSPRS), which ended on 30 September 2021 for the purposes of this scheme an employer will be regarded as a SME if it has fewer than 250 employees.
The main eligibility conditions for employers are:
1. They are UK-based.
2. They employed fewer than 250 employees as of 30 November 2021.
3. They had a PAYE payroll system as off 30 November 2021.
3. They have already paid their employees’ COVID-related SSP.
Employers will be able to claim the costs for up to two weeks of SSP per employee that has to take time off because of COVID-19. SSP is currently £96.35 per week and employers can claim for up to two weeks SSP per employee. The self-employed are not eligible, but casual or agency workers are entitled to SSP.
There is no three-day waiting period under this new scheme. An employer can claim from the first qualifying day that their employee is off work if the period of sickness started on or after 21 December 2021. :A ‘qualifying day’ is a day an employee usually works on. They will receive repayments at the relevant standard rate of SSP that they paid to their current or former employees for any eligible periods of sickness starting on or after 21 December 2021.
This two-week limit will be reset so an employer will be able to claim up to two weeks per employee regardless of whether they have claimed under the previous scheme for that employee
There are no details indicating when the scheme will end other than the government will keep the scheme under review.
Claims can be made retrospectively from mid-January, using this website:
Employers must keep records of Statutory Sick Pay that they’ve paid and want to claim back from HMRC.
Employers must keep the following records for 3 years after the date they receive the payment for their claim:
• the dates the employee was off sick
• which of those dates were qualifying days
• the reason they said they were off work due to COVID19
• the employee’s National Insurance number
SRC-Time are one of the South East’s leading accountancy firms in advising on all aspects of business, taxation and corporate finance and we can assist in any issue raised above
Our expert team is available to provide you with advice and can be contacted on 01273 326 556 or you can drop us an email at info@src-time.co.uk or speak with an account manager to get any process started.
