As part of its strategy to contain Covid-19 (also known as the coronavirus), the government has announced that it will bring forward emergency legislation temporarily amending the eligibility requirements for statutory sick pay (SSP), allowing the statutory payment to be made from the first day of sickness absence. Under section 155(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, SSP is not currently payable for the first three qualifying days in any period of incapacity for work.

In a statement to the House of Commons on 4 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the emergency measures were being introduced so that employees would not lose out financially where they are asked to stay at home to protect others in the workplace from the virus. 

It is understood that this change will not be limited to those employees who have been diagnosed with Covid-19; the legislation will amend the requirements for all those eligible to receive SSP. The Prime Minister appeared to refer to employees who have been requested to self-isolate on medical advice, even if they are not suffering from any symptoms and so remain able to work. It is likely that such individuals would be eligible for SSP by reason of deemed incapacity, provided they have been issued with a written notice by a medical authority advising them to self-isolate. This is confirmed by Acas guidance which has been updated following the government's announcement.

The rate of SSP will increase from £94.25 per week to £95.85 on 6 April 2020. In response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister refused to be drawn on whether the emergency legislation would allow SSP to be paid to those not currently eligible, such as workers on zero-hours contracts.

The government has updated its guidance (which can be found on the BEIS website) on calculating statutory holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay in anticipation of the changes coming into effect on 6 April 2020. From that date, the reference period used in holiday pay calculations will be increased from 12 weeks to 52 weeks. This is designed to ensure that workers who do not have a regular working pattern throughout the year are not disadvantaged by having to take their holiday at a quiet time of the year when their weekly pay might be lower.

If a worker has not built up 52 weeks' worth of pay data, employers should use however many complete weeks of data they have as the reference period. The updated guidance includes a table of worked examples showing how to calculate statutory holiday pay for workers in four different scenarios.

It should be noted that this guidance has not been updated to take account of the Court of Appeal's decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2019] EWCA Civ 1402 and so the guidance should not be relied upon for holiday pay calculations for term-time workers.

The guidance can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calculating-holiday-pay-for-workers-without-fixed-hours-or-pay

The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2020 (SI 2020/205) has been laid before Parliament and increases the limit applying to certain awards of employment tribunals and other statutory payments on 6 April 2020. In particular, the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will rise from £86,444 to £88,519 and the maximum amount of a week's pay, used to calculate statutory redundancy payments and various awards, including the basic and additional awards for unfair dismissal, will rise from £525 to £538.

The draft Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2020 has also been published and increases the rates of statutory sick pay, maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay.