By concession, claims to have any SSP costs refunded – that related to COVID issues – will end 30 September 2021. Claims for the final period to 30 September will need to be submitted to HMRC by the end of 2021.

What You Can Reclaim

You can reclaim up to 2 weeks of SSP starting from the first qualifying day of sickness. Employees qualify if they are unable to work due to coronavirus symptoms, if they are self-isolating or been advised to shield as they are in a high-risk group.

You can make more than one claim per employee, but you cannot reclaim more than 2 weeks in total.

The current rate of SSP is £96.35 per week. Before April 2021, the weekly rate was £95.85.

Who Can Make Claims?

You can make a claim to have SSP paid, refunded if:

• You have already paid an employee SSP or you are claiming for an employee who is eligible for sick pay due to coronavirus.
• You have a payroll scheme that was started on or before February 2020, and on this date, you had fewer than 250 employees taking all your PAYE schemes into account.

You do not need to have a doctor’s note to approve an SSP payment, but you can ask employees to request an NHS 111 isolation note or a shielding note from their doctor or health authority.

Are You Claiming Under The Furlough Scheme?

If yes, please note that you can claim back from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and SSP rebate scheme for the same employee, but not for the same period.

How To Make A Claim

You must have made SSP payments before you can make a reclaim.

There is an online service you can use to make repayments, or if we look after your payroll, we can do this for you.

As mentioned above, the deadline for submitting the final reclaim request to 30 September 2021, is 31 December 2021.

You will need to keep records of absences that qualify for the SSP rebates and these records will need to be kept for three years after the date you receive the payment for your claim.

Please call if you need more information regarding these changes.