Simplification of Statutory Sick Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay


DWP's Simplification Plan includes reviews of SSP and SMP

The Department for Work and Pensions has published its Simplification Plan 2006-07, a series of measures aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on its own staff, employers and individuals. Forty different proposals are explained, including reviews of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP). The upper and lower age limits for entitlement to SSP and SMP were removed from October 2006 in order to comply with a European Directive outlawing discrimination on the grounds of age. A number of changes are also being made to SMP and Maternity Allowance from April 2007.

The requirement for employers to maintain records of sickness absence for four or more consecutive days, for each employee for three years, is shown as imposing the greatest burden of all of the obligations under consideration. In January 2006, the DWP put forward a number of proposals to simplify SSP, including the removal of the three waiting days, removal of the linking rules that apply when people change employment and the removal of the Percentage Threshold Scheme. However, there was significant opposition to scrapping the waiting days and the DWP decided not to proceed with the changes at that time.

A further review is now underway, to assess the feasibility of reducing the SSP record keeping requirements. An initial meeting of the SSP Review Working Group was held on 7 November 2006 to approve terms of reference. The group will provide ministers with a preliminary report early in 2007 and with agreed final recommendations on the future of SSP by mid-2007.

A similar review, with the same timetable, is also to be conducted of the record-keeping requirements for SMP.

...UK Payroll News - Latest

Further information:
DWP Simplification Plan 2006-07

The UK Payroll News is sponsored by HRD & Payroll Solutions

Discuss this news item in the PayPerShop Forum