QuickPoll results: How do you record reasons for SSP incapacity within your payroll software?
01 June 2020
The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme online service was launched for claimants to use on 26 May 2020, and due to the fact that HMRC has confirmed that employers must retain a record of the reason an employee / employees were off sick in order to make claims, the CIPP wanted to ask payroll professionals how they process the reason for absences within payroll software, as not all software will accommodate this information.
The Policy and Research team launched a QuickPoll, which ran for just under two weeks, and asked the question:
“How do you record reasons for SSP incapacity within your payroll software?”
There were a healthy number of responses, and the breakdown is as follows:
We are having to override manually for COVID19 related incapacity: 65%
We don’t – we keep manual records: 31%
We pass on to our bureau to monitor: 4%
As expected, many payroll teams are having to intervene and to manually override for any incapacity relating to coronavirus. This must be highly time consuming for payroll professionals, and there is, unfortunately, always room for human error where manual processes are involved.
Similarly, many respondents reported that they have had to maintain manual records to ensure that they comply with the recordkeeping requirements associated with claims submitted through the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme.
A much lower percentage of individuals confirmed that they pass the information across to their bureau, who would then be required to keep a record of it.
The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. For all the latest information, news and resources on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting payroll professions, visit our Coronavirus hub.