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 following is applicable:
- The same three waiting days apply to each PIW in the linked sequence. So, if the employee already went through all three required waiting days in the first PIW, they don’t need to go through any more waiting days in the next linked PIW. However, if they didn't go through all three in the first PIWs, they still need to go through the remaining ones in the subsequent linked PIW. (It's possible for them not to go through all waiting days in the first PIW if it started on a non-working day and then spanned fewer than three qualifying days).
- The conditions that the application uses to determine whether the employee was eligible to receive SSP in 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.
- Waiting Days: The first three qualifying days during the PIW (that is, the first three sick days that the employee requests in the PIW). For these three days, the employee is not eligible to receive SSP. The waiting days do not count toward the 28-week limit for which an employee can be paid for SSP.
- Average Weekly Earnings (AWE): An amount used to determine whether the employee earns above the Lower Earning Limit (LEL) defined by UK legislation. Only employees with an AWE above the LEL are eligible for SSP. 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 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.