Statutory Sick Pay for Nannies

All nannies earning over £86 per week are entitled, as a minimum, to Statutory Sick Pay (usually abbreviated to SSP) during sick leave, whether referred to in their contract or not. A nanny who earns less than this will only be entitled to sick pay if this is specified in their contract. PAYE for Nannies can advise on how this might be handled and some basic advice is given below.

The rules governing payment of Statutory Sick Pay are bureaucratic and complex and the booklet produced by HM Revenue covering this is 26 pages long and comes with a 16 page supplement! However, PAYE for Nannies will deal with all Statutory Sick Pay issues and calculations as part of its basic service.

However, in general terms, Statutory Sick Pay is only payable from the fourth working day of absence and is then paid at a flat rate (in the tax year 2007-8) of £72.55 per week with a daily rate calculated pro-rata.

The employer can usually reclaim a proportion of this from the Revenue if the nanny has been paid SSP for more than a couple of days, but again, this is a complicated calculation related to the amount of National Insurance contributions due for the tax month in which the absence occurred. Generally, if the nanny has only been absent for four or five working days, very little will be able to be reclaimed but if the absence lasts for two weeks or more, most or all of the Statutory Sick Pay will be reclaimable.

The contract should specify if the nanny will receive any sick pay in excess of Statutory Sick Pay and it is quite usual for employers to specify that sick pay will be paid at normal rates for a short period in any period of absence. (No matter how much is paid, the employer can only reclaim at a rate of £72.55 per week.)

Employers should remember to place a limit on any additional sick pay. e.g. A maximum of four weeks additional sick pay in any 12 month period.