SSP Stopped - The Reasons Why.

Statutory Sick Pay can be stopped by your employer for many different reasons. More often than not, it is not the fault of your employer. They also have to abide by rules - some of which are set out below.

If you are not eligible for SSP in the first place, or your SSP is coming to - or has reached - an end, your employer should give you a form which explains why. The form is named SSP1. If your employer tells you your SSP is going to stop - or maybe not start - then they must give you the form SSP1 which explains why your SSP is not payable.

You do not have to fill in anything on the form. Your employer will have (should have) already filled in everything that needs to be done. Once you have the form, then you can make a claim for other benefits instead.

The form SSP1 will have to explain to you why your SSP has either been stopped, or is shortly coming to an end. You employer will have to tell you on the form why this is so. Below, we set out the information relating to why you cannot get SSP. Your employer MUST tell you at least one of the reasons, by ticking a ready-made box on the fourth page of the form.

Reasons Why You Cannot Get SSP

A/ You are able to claim a benefit that you claimed before, relating to a disability or illness.
- For instance, if you have claimed Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sometime in the last twelve weeks.
- If during the last two years - 104 weeks - you have re-started work within a month of leaving your ESA Benefit.
- The same timescales also apply if you have claimed IB - Incapacity Benefit or SDA - Severe Disability Allowance.
B/ The period of your contract of employment was for a fixed time limit, which has now ended.
- Once your Contract of Employment has ended, you are not entitled to SSP from that Employer.
C/ Your Employer has bought your Contract of Employment to an end!
- As in B above, you cannot get SSP after the end of your Contract of Employment. HOWEVER - If your contract has been bough to a close by your employer, as a way to stop paying you SSP, you are STILL entitled to that SSP. Your employer CANNOT fire you in order to get out of paying you SSP.
D/ SSP is only for 28 weeks - so you have either been receiving it for that time, or soon will be at the time limit.
- Your employer should warn you, but it is also up to you to be aware of the time limit of 28 weeks. If you have had a few periods of sickness which are less than eight weeks apart, then if the total is 28 weeks of actual sickness claim, then it comes to an end. So, if you have claimed for period 1 for nine weeks, then say four weeks after that ended you claimed for SSP again with sickness (period 2) then once period 2 reaches 19 weeks (9 + 19 = 28 weeks) your SSP can no longer be paid.
E/ If your average earnings were not high enough before your sickness period, then SSP cannot be paid.
- You are not entitled to SSP if your average earnings for the 8 weeks before you became ill, were less than the Lower Earnings Limit - ie £81.60 per week average. This will include any tax or National Insurance - in other words your gross pay.
F/ You have just had a baby, or you are about to have a baby.
- You do not get SSP if you have been receiving Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) during the last 39 weeks - from your employer or Maternity Allowance (MA) from the Job Centre.
- If you are not entitled to either SMP or MA, then you will not be entitled to SSP for 18 and week period.
  - If you are already getting SSP, the 18 week period will start either the day after your baby is born, OR the day after your first absence from work because of an illness related to your pregnancy - only if this is within the 4 weeks of your 'expected' date.
  - If you are not already getting SSP, the 18 week period will start at the beginning of the week that your baby is born OR the beginning of the week that you were absent from work because of an illness related to your pregnancy - if this is within 4 weeks of your 'expected' date.
G/ If you have been regularly sick - on and off - for three years or more, you may not get SSP.
- If length of your sicknesses were more than four days, and you did not work for at least 8 weeks between each sickness event, then your will not be entitled to SSP.
H/ If you did not work because of a trade dispute (strike), and you did not claim sickness on day one, then you will not be entitled to SSP.
- For instance, Strike starts on day 1, you go sick on day 2. NOT ALLOWED for SSP. HOWEVER - If you were not directly involved in the dispute (You will have to prove that), or you were actually claiming SSP before the trade dispute, then you will still be entitled to your SSP.
I/ If you were sick during being legally detained - or in prison. No SSP.
- Either of the above, will mean that your SSP will not be allowed.
J/ If on the first day you became sick, you were working outside the UK and your employer was not liable for any Class 1 NIC on that day.
- You are not entitled to SSP if you were working outside the UK on the first day of your sickness and your employer did not have any liability for paying your NIC Class1. This applies even if you get back home to the UK on the 2nd day of that sickness.
K/ You have not actually started working for your employer.
- You may have been accepted for the job, and have a contract of employment, but if you have not actually started work for that employer, they do not have to pay you SSP.

Hope it all helps!

SSP Main Page |