When SSP is payable

Employers should pay SSP in the same way as they pay wages, and on the same day. However, SSP may not be payable immediately. To qualify for SSP, the worker must be ill for a period of incapacity for work (PIW), which is a period of four or more calendar days in a row (including weekends and bank holidays), counting the three “waiting days”.

However, PIWs can be “linked” and treated as one period if the gap between them is eight weeks (56 days) or less. So if a worker relying on SSP returns to work and falls ill again within that period, waiting days do not apply. Workers will not be eligible for SSP if they have a continuous series of linked periods that lasts more than three years.