Process Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in Sage 50 Cloud Payroll

With the help of the current Legislation and to ensure that you pay the employees correctly, you can easily calculate Statutory Sick Pay using the Sage 50 Cloud Payroll. Let us take a look at some of the main aspects of how to Process Statutory Sick Pay in Sage 50 Cloud Payroll (SSP) .

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Eligibility and Entitlement

According to the law, it is required for the user to be able to pay an SSP or Statutory Sick Pay to all employees that are ill and are qualified for sick pay.

The Eligibility:

For the user to be eligible for the SSP, they need to:

• Has been off work for 4 or more qualifying days in a row. 
• Earns a minimum of £123.00 per week.
• Are under an employment contract and have completed a certain amount of work under the contract. 
• In case the Employees have been paid less than 8 weeks of earnings and are still qualified for SSP, then you can make use of any sick pay calculator on the Gov website to figure out the amount to be paid. 
• In case a certain employee is off work because of some sickness, and does not qualify for SSP, then you need to issue the SSP1 forms. This can be easily issued from the official websites.

Entitlement

In case the employee qualifies for SSP then the current legislature offers them 28 weeks at £109.40. In this case, they are entitled to the SSP under these conditions:

• For those days they usually work what are called ‘qualifying days’. 
• In the same manner as wages, for example on the normal payday, deducting tax and National insurance.

Read More-: Manage Employee Record Information in Sage 50

Enter Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for an Employee

According to this law, the user needs to pay SSP, or Statutory Sick Pay to all those employees that are ill and are qualified for Sick pay. There is some of the most up-to-date legislation and simplified processing available in Sage 50 Payroll that allows the calculation of SSP values for the user.

Solution

To set up the Employee qualifying day pattern:

• Start by Clicking Payroll, 
• Next Change Process Date.
• Now Enter the required process date, 
• Next, click OK.
• Double-click the employee, 
• Now click Absence.
• Click S.S.P. then click on the link ‘holiday and absence qualifying patterns’. 
• Enter the date of the Sunday on which the first or only pattern starts.
• Make sure that the Manual Statutory Sick Pay Calculations check box is clear.
• Click OK.
• When prompted that the pattern or qualifying start date has changed, click Yes.
• Click Save
• Finally, click Close.

To Enter the Absence Details

• Start by Selecting the employee
• Now click Payroll.
• Next, Click Enter Payments, 
• and click SSP /Parental Leave.
• Click and drag to select the date range.
• Right-click and click SSP.
•  next Due to sickness.
• If required, enter a comment, then click OK.
• Finally, Check that the absence diary displays the correct characters for the dates you entered.

To Check the SSP Details in the Employee Record

Once the period of sickness has been recorded, the record details of the employees can be viewed:

• Start by double-clicking on the required employee 
• Next, click the Absence tab.
• Now Click SSP then check the details in each tab:
  • 8 Weeks Gross
• Next close the screen
• Finally, click OK.

In order to qualify for SSP, the employee’s average weekly earnings must be at or above the current national insurance lower earnings limit. The eight weeks before the start of sickness is used to calculate the average weekly earnings.

Qualifying Days

To qualify for SSP the employee must be absent for four or more days in a row. The qualifying day pattern is used to calculate the SSP entitlement.

Previous PIWThis displays the details of the last period of sick pay paid to your employee. This can be viewed in their employee record and, if required, update the details.

The SSP limit

The SSP due is calculated automatically by the software, based on the sickness absence that has been entered. It has to be 28 weeks, as the maximum duration that the SSP can be paid. Once reached the program automatically stops calculating the SSP. 

In case the Employees reach this stage and there aren’t due for any other payments then you should replace them:

Change an Employee’s Status to on Hold

The user needs to change the employee’s status to on hold before processing the payroll for the pay period you’re not paying them for:

• Go to the employee list
• Now double-click the required employee.
• Next, Click the Employment tab.
• Within the Status drop-down list, select On Hold.
• Click Save 
• Now click Close

To Change an Employee’s Status to OK

• Go to the employee list, 
• Now double-click the required employee.
• Next, Click the Employment tab.
• Within the Status drop-down list,
• Click select OK.
• Click Save then click OK.

In case the employee has been on hold, and their records have not been updated for a minimum of one pay period, then the following notification appears:

'Some of your selected employees have not been updated for the previous pay period. Your tax may be incorrect if you miss an update.'

In this case, the employee wasn’t updated for a previous pay period as you didn’t pay them. For this click OK to continue entering payments as their tax will be correct. The employee will have missing periods on their P11 for the periods in which they were on hold, but this is correct as they didn’t receive any pay.

Employees on Hold at Payroll Year-End

In case the employee needs to continue to be on hold over Payroll year-end and into the next tax year, one can leave them on hold while you run the year-end. If the employee has been paid in the tax year you’re closing, they will be automatically included in your year-end submission and a P60 will be produced for them if they’ve been paid in the tax year.

Part worked day

In case the employee ends up working one minute more of their shift, and gets homesick, then it can be counted as a sick day. Though the statutory sick pay is not due for the portion that has been worked, the user will want to record the absence within the Sage 50 payroll.

Quick SSP

According to law, you must pay Statutory sick pay (SSP) to all employees who are off work because of sickness and qualify for sick pay. Sage 50 Payroll includes the most up-to-date legislation and simplifies processing sick pay by automatically calculating SSP for you.

One can record sick days quickly and keep track of employees’ sicknesses using the Quick SSP option. Let’s record SSP now.

Process using Quick SSP

• Start by Clicking on Payroll, 
• Next  Change Process Date.
• Now Enter the required process date,
• Next, click OK.
• Now Select the required employee
• Click on Employee.
• Click Recording Sickness
• Enter the first and last day of sickness.
• Click Calculate Entitlement.
• If required, select the Withhold SSP Payments check box.
• If required, select the Welfare to Work check box.
• Now enter any required comments.
• In order to view or amend click Qualifying Days 
• Now enter the date of the Sunday on which the first or only pattern starts.
• TIP: This should be a Sunday before the employee becomes sick. 
• To check the employee’s earnings, click Earnings during the set period
• Click OK.
• Check the correct qualifying day pattern appears.
• Check the employee’s average earnings during the set period is correct.
• Click Save, then Close.

In case the sickness is ongoing and continues into the next pay period, one can follow the same process the next time. When entering the first day of sickness, you need to enter the day immediately after the last day of sickness recorded in the previous pay period. This also includes any weekends and non-working days. E.g. If the last day of sickness that has been entered previously was Friday, enter the first day of sickness as Saturday.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) – A Troubleshooting Guide

In case you have entered the relevant statutory sick pay (SSP) dates into the employee’s absence diary, and when you process their pay, the right SSP value should appear.

In case the value is incorrect or zero, to identify and correct it, you can use this troubleshooting guide

Let’s take a look together:

In order to check the current SSP value, follow the below steps:

• Click Payroll, 
• Click Change Process Date, 
• Now enter the correct date 
• Now click OK.
• Next Select the employee
• Click Payroll
• Click Enter Payments then click Summary

Also Read-: Sage 50 COVID-19 Payroll Reporting Wizard

Conclusion

So, there you have it friends, that is all about the Process of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in Sage 50 Cloud Payroll. In case of any doubts, you can easily take a look at our website: www.accounting advice.co

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)