You’re only responsible for paying SSP if:
- you pay Class 1 National Insurance contributions for your employee (or would do if not for their age or their level of earnings)
- your employee was sick for 4 or more days in a row (including non-working days)
- your employee has told you they’re sick within your own time limit (or 7 days if you do not have one)
You cannot use the calculator for periods of sickness before 6 April 2011.
Different periods of sick leave
You can combine periods of sick leave if the gap between them is 8 weeks or less. These are called ‘linked Periods of Incapacity for Work (PIW)’.
If there’s more than one linked PIW, you’ll need to work out the SSP manually.