PAYROLL ASSURANCE SCHEME DON’TWAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE Can you afford penalties of up to £10,000* per day for non- compliance? Make sure your people and processes are working, and get ahead of any nonconformities before they become a problem.
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A: There is no age limit for SSP payments. Employees are entitled to SSP provided they satisfy the eligibility criteria, which are: ● classed as an employee and have done some work for their employer ● earn on average at least £120 per week ● have been ill, self-isolating or ‘shielding’ for at least four days in a row. ● Please see the guidance found here: https://bit.ly/3cT0V05. Q: Is there a limit on how many linking periods an employee can have before they are no longer eligible for SSP? A: Employees are not eligible for SSP if they have a continuous series of linked periods that last more than three years. If the employee does not have linked periods lasting more than three years, then provided they satisfy the eligibility criteria for SSP and do not fall under the exceptions then they will be entitled to the payments. Q: If an employee wishes to take statutory paternity pay (SPP) and leave, what notice are they required to give? A: The notice required for SPP depends on whether the paternity is related to birth or adoption. In cases of birth, the required notice is by no later than the Saturday of the qualifying week (fifteen weeks prior to the week the baby is due). For adoption, the required notice is 28 days from the date the child will be placed. It is prudent that the notice is made in writing and informs the employer of the expected date of birth or the date that the child is expected to be placed. The notice should also indicate when the employee wants to start being paid SPP and whether they will be taking one or two weeks of leave. In circumstances where the employee is late giving notice to the employer, then it is for the employer to decide if it was reasonably practicable for the employee to have given them notice on time. Please see section SPM140600 of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) Statutory Pay Manual for more information: https://bit.ly/3jrJc2C. Q: An employee who was due to be on paternity leave, has instead commenced sick leave. Must we still pay SPP? A: If an employee is eligible to be paid
SSP in any week during the paternity pay period (PPP) then they cannot be paid SPP for that week. However, they can be paid SPP for a week in which there were only waiting days for SSP, prior to payment. This is encompassed at section SPM140700 of HMRC’s Statutory Pay Manual , see: https://bit.ly/33o2T5z. If an employee is off sick during the time they requested as statutory paternity leave (SPL) then they can request to take this later after their sickness ends. However, this must still be within the time limit of 56 days after the birth of the baby (see Regulation 18(a) of the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) Regulations 2002). Q: We have an employee on statutory shared parental pay (SShPP), but they are being made redundant during their period of statutory shared parental leave (SShPL). How do we treat this? A: One of the eligibility criteria for SShPP is that the employee must have been continuously employed 26 weeks prior to the qualifying week (fifteen weeks before the week the baby is due). This is referred to as the continuity of employment test. The employee must also still be employed the week prior to when the SShPP is due. Provided that the employee satisfies these criteria then if they are made redundant during their SShPL and they are in receipt of SShPP then they would continue to be paid for the remainder of that period of leave. It is important to note that starting a new job would cease their entitlement to SShPP. Please see regulation 30 of the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations 2014. n Clarification to the article ‘Annual leave and term-time workers’ The authors of the article, which was published in the October issue, have supplied the following clarifying comments. “The divisor of 44.4 used in the calculations for the purpose of the out-of- court settlement of the case involving the Royal Borough of Greenwich was agreed by the parties. The calculation (and divisor) should not be construed as an appropriate calculation methodology for general purposes.”
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 65 | November 2020
*correct at time of publication
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