The pandemic has had a considerable effect on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) as he assured people that they would be paid for the days they missed off work due to contracting coronavirus, this was in an attempt to encourage individuals to isolate immediately after getting the virus.

This then led to confusion regarding their employees sickness whether it was corona or something else as it would usually be questioned by HR teams as oppose to payroll.

The coronavirus SSP rebate scheme was designed to allow eligible organisations up to 2 weeks of SSP for employees who were absent from work due to contracting coronavirus. The scheme then closed on 30th September and organisations were given up until 31st December 2021 to submit associate claims.

However this wasn’t the end of the SSP Rebate Scheme, when Omicron hit the government announced the re-opening of the scheme relating to coronavirus relating absences commencing on or after 21st December 2021. The employers were urged to claim through the portal which became available from the 19th January 2022.

Among all the changes, there were also adjustments made to the rules concerning self certification periods, this allowed GPs to focus on the Covid-19 vaccine booster programme. Employees were therefore able to self-certify sickness for up to 28 days as opposed to just the first seven. Absences beginning on or after the 10th December 2021 up to and including absences commencing on or before 26th January 2022 were effected by this. The 7 day self-certification period returned for absences that started on or after 27th January 2022.