Skip to content

Advice For Employers & HR Professionals

Statutory Sick Pay – Temporary changes to medical evidence requirements

Reforms to the UK’s SSP rules came into force on 17 December 2021, to reduce the burden placed on GP practices to enable them to concentrate on the rollout of the COVID-19 booster programme.

Resultantly, employees who are absent from work on or after 10 December 2021, up to and including 26 January 2022 will not be required to provide their employer with medical evidence for the first 28 days of their absence. This means that an employee can self-certify for any absence of up to 28 days that starts at any time during this period. However, if an employee’s absence began before 10 December, they must continue to provide evidence when they are absent for more than 7 consecutive days. For absences exceeding 28 days, employees will still be required to provide medical evidence. Unless the rules are extended, from the 27 January 2022 the self-certification period will revert to 7 days.

Employers may wish to use this as an opportunity to remind their employees of the need to comply with their absence reporting requirements. For those employers that offer enhanced sick pay, they will need to consider whether they will align their approach to company sick pay during this period with the new SSP rules.

We will be monitoring the position throughout January and will update clients and contacts once we know if there will be a further extension beyond 27 January.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/1453/made

Back to top