The following are terms used when determining an employee's eligibility for SSP. For more information, see the page "Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): employer guide" on www.gov.uk.
- Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW): A period lasting four days or more in which the employee is too sick to work. This includes workdays, but can also include non-workdays, weekends, and bank holidays. For example, if an employee regularly works Monday to Friday, it's possible for their PIW to start on the weekend.
- Linked PIWs: A series of two or more PIWs that are connected by a span of eight weeks or less. For example, an employee was away sick the following times in 2020:
- April (PIW)
- May (returned to work)
- June (PIW)
- July, August, September (returned to work)
- October (PIW)
- The PIWs in April and June are linked, because there was only a month between them. Meanwhile the time in October is a non-linked PIW because it occurred twelve weeks from the last PIW.
- When PIWs are linked, the conditions Dayforce uses to determine SSP eligibility for the first linked PIW apply to all subsequent PIWs in the linked sequence. For example, if the employee no longer meets the income limit at the time of the second linked PIW, but they met this limit at the time of the first PIW in the linked sequence, then they are still eligible for SSP.
- Qualifying Days: The days for which the employee is eligible to receive SSP. While the PIW covers the days the employee is sick (workdays, weekends, non-workdays and holidays), qualifying days are limited to the employee's regular workdays that occur during the PIW. Qualifying days are the actual sick days that employees request off. For example, if an employee works Monday to Friday, it is possible for their PIW to start on the weekend, but only days Monday to Friday can count as qualifying days.
- Average Weekly Earnings (AWE): An amount used to determine whether the employee earns above the Lower Earning Limit (LEL) defined by UK legislation. AWE is determined by adding up the gross earnings from the eight weeks before the last normal pay date that occurred before the first day of the PIW, and then dividing this value by eight. If an employee’s AWE is lower than the LEL, then SSP will be paid at 80% of AWE.
- If the employee doesn't have eight weeks of pay history at your organization, then the calculation is based on the pay history that's available. If no pay history is available, the calculation is based on rate and hours in the employee's HR record.