You may have heard about the Government’s re-introduction of the Statutory Rebate Scheme from 21st December 2021 to assist businesses most impacted by Omicron in the UK. It allows eligible employers to reclaim up to 2 weeks of SSP for each eligible employee for absences relating to Covid-19 (regardless of whether a claim has been made for a particular employee under the previous version of this scheme).
Employer Eligibility
The criteria for an employer to make the claim is as follows:
- your business must have fewer than 250 employees as at 30th November 2021
- your PAYE payroll scheme was created or started by 30th November 2021
- your business must be based in the UK
Employee Eligibility
The criteria that an employee must meet to be eligible for the claim is as follows:
- your employee must be on sick leave for Covid-19 related reasons
- your employee has been paid Covid-19 related SSP
How to make a claim
You will be able to make a claim through HMRC from the middle of January at the following URL:
You will need the following information:
- the number of employees you are claiming for
- start and end dates of your claim period
- the total amount of sick pay you’re claiming
- your Gov Gateway ID and password (for your PAYE Online)
- your employer PAYE ref number
- name and contact number for queries
- your UK bank account details
Keeping Records
Make sure you keep records of SSP paid to your employees and the detail you used to calculate your claim under the SSP Rebate Scheme. Keep these records save for 3 years from the date you received the payment for your claim.
The specific detail you need to keep is as follows:
- dates your employee was off sick
- which of those dates were qualifying days
- your employees confirmation that they were absent due to Covid-19
- your employees National Insurance Number
Kickstart Scheme Employees
For those of you who have funding for employees through the Kickstart Scheme, you won’t be able to reclaim any wages under the rebate scheme as you are already receiving funding for those employees.
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