The rate of Statutory Sick Pay is worked out according to the employee's normal weekly earnings, this will determine which band they fall into.
The rate of statutory sick pay is £79.15 per week for employees earning not less than the amount necessary to be liable to pay National Insurance Contributions.
It is not payable for the first 3 qualifying days of the illness, but is payable thereafter up to 28 weeks. After that time an employee will have to claim state sickness benefit.
If an employee does not qualify for statutory sick pay they may still qualify for sickness benefit from the DSS.
Statutory sick pay will be paid by the employer and reclaimed from the state. Statutory sick pay is payable at a weekly rate divided by the number of qualifying days in that week. The qualifying days usually follow the normal pattern of working days, for example Monday to Friday. The qualifying days can however be less, but there must be at least one qualifying day per week and it must not be fixed by reference to the days of sickness.
The employer and employee will have to agree on what the qualifying days will be and these are to be included in the contract. If the contract does not spell out the qualifying days then if there is a dispute the court will usually choose the normal working week. If this varies the court will choose Wednesdays as the qualifying days.
For example, if the employee works Monday to Friday and those are the qualifying days and he falls ill on Tuesday he cannot claim until Friday. If the employee's 4th day of illness falls on one of the qualifying days then they can claim 1/5 of the weekly amount of statutory sick pay for that day of illness.
If Wednesday is the only qualifying day and the employee fell ill on Wednesday they could claim the full weekly amount for that days illness.
If however, they fell ill on any other day apart from Wednesday they could not claim anything. In reality most employers will pay the employee their normal pay during periods of sickness as part of their contract.
