Social Security and Housing Benefits Act 1982
Social Security and HousingBenefits Act 1982
1982 CHAPTER 24
An Act to make provision for the payment of statutory sick pay by employers; to make new provision with respect to the grant of, and the payment of subsidies in respect of, rate rebates, rent rebates and rent allowances; to amend the law relating to social security and war pensions; to amend section 44 of the National Assistance Act 1948; and for connected purposes.
[28th June 1982]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Statutory Sick Pay
1 Employer's liability.
(1) Where an employee has a day of incapacity for work in relation to his Contract of service with an employer, that employer shall, if the conditions set out in sections 2 to 4 of this Act are satisfied, be liable to make to him, in accordance with the following provisions of this Part, a payment (to be known as ‘statutory sick pay’) in respect of that day.
(2) Any agreement shall be void to the extent that it purports—
(a ) to exclude, limit or otherwise modify any provision of this Part; or
(b ) to require an employee to contribute (whether directly or indirectly) towards any costs incurred by his employer under this Part.
(3) For the purposes of this Part a day shall not be treated as a day of incapacity for work in relation to any contract of service unless on that day the employee concerned is, or is deemed in accordance with regulations to be, incapable by reason of some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement of doing work which he can reasonably be expected to do under that contract.
(4) In any case where an employee has more than one contract of service with the same employer the provisions of this Part shall, except in such cases as may be prescribed and subject to the following provisions of this Part, have effect as if the employer were a different employer in relation to each contract of service.
The qualifying conditions
2 Period of incapacity for work.
(1) The first condition is that the day in question forms part of a period of incapacity for work.
(2) In this Part ‘period of incapacity for work’ means any period of four or more consecutive days, each of which is a day of incapacity for work in relation to the contract of service in question.
(3) Any two periods of incapacity for work which are separated by a period of not more than two weeks shall be treated as a single period of incapacity for work.
(4) No day of the week shall be disregarded in calculating any period of consecutive days for the purposes of this section.
(5) A day may be a day of incapacity for work in relation to a contract of service, and so form part of a period of incapacity for work, notwithstanding that—
(a ) it falls before the making of the contract or after the contract expires or is brought to an end; or
(b ) it is not a day on which the employee concerned would be required by that contract to be available for work.
3 Period of entitlement.
(1) The second condition is that the day in question falls within a period which is, as between the employee and his employer, a period of entitlement.
(2) For the purposes of this Part a period of entitlement, as between an employee and his employer, is a period beginning with the commencement of a period of incapacity for work and ending with whichever of the following first occurs—
(a ) the termination of that period of incapacity for work;
(b ) the day on which the employee reaches, as against the employer concerned, his maximum entitlement to statutory sick pay (determined in accordance with section 5 of this Act);
(c ) the day on which the employee's contract of service with the employer concerned expires or is brought to an end;
(d ) in the case of an employee who is, or has been, pregnant, the day immediately preceding the beginning of the disqualifying period.
(3) Schedule 1 to this Act has effect for the purpose of specifying circumstances in which a period of entitlement does not arise in relation to a particular period of incapacity for work.
(4) A period of entitlement as between an employee and an employer of his may also be, or form part of, a period of entitlement as between him and another employer of his.
(5) Regulations may provide, in relation to prescribed cases, for a period of entitlement to end otherwise than in accordance with subsection (2) above.
(6) In a case where the employee's contract of service first takes effect on a day which falls within a period of incapacity for work, the period of entitlement begins with that day.
(7) Regulations shall make provision as to an employer's liability under this Part to pay statutory sick pay to an employee in any case where the employer's contract of service with that employee has been brought to an end by the employer solely, or mainly, for the purpose of avoiding liability for statutory sick pay.
(8) Subsection (2)(d ) above does not apply in relation to an employee who has been pregnant if her pregnancy terminated, before the beginning of the disqualifying period, otherwise than by confinement.
(9) In this section—
‘confinement’ has the same meaning as in section 23 of the principal Act;
‘disqualifying period’ means the period of eighteen weeks beginning with the eleventh week before the expected week of confinement; and
‘expected week of confinement’ has the same meaning as in section 22 of the principal Act.
4 Qualifying days.
(1) The third condition is that the day in question is a qualifying day.
(2) The days which are, for the purposes of this Part, to be qualifying days as between an employee and an employer of his (that is to say those days of the week on which he is required by his contract of service with that employer to be available for work or which are chosen to reflect the terms of that contract) shall be such day, or days, as may be agreed between the employee and his employer or, failing such agreement, determined in accordance with regulations.
(3) In any case where qualifying days are determined by agreement between an employee and his employer there shall, in each week (beginning with Sunday), be at least one qualifying day.
(4) A day which is a qualifying day as between an employee and an employer of his may also be a qualifying day as between him and another employer of his.
Limitations on entitlement, etc.
5 Limitations on entitlement.
(1) Statutory sick pay shall not be payable for the first three qualifying days in any period of entitlement.
(2) An employee shall not be entitled, as against any one employer, to an aggregate amount of statutory sick pay in respect of any one period of entitlement, or tax year, which exceeds his maximum entitlement.
(3) The maximum entitlement as against any one employer is reached on the day on which the amount to which the employee has become entitled by way of statutory sick pay during the period of entitlement in question or, as the case may be, the aggregate amount to which he has become so entitled during the tax year in question first reaches or passes the entitlement limit.
(4) The entitlement limit is an amount equal to eight times the appropriate weekly rate set out in section 7 of this Act.
(5) Regulations may make provision for calculating the entitlement limit in any case where an employee's entitlement to statutory sick pay is calculated by reference to different weekly rates in the same tax year or period of entitlement.
6 Notification of incapacity for work.
(1) Regulations shall prescribe the manner in which, and the time within which, notice of any day of incapacity for work is to be given by or on behalf of an employee to his employer.
(2) An employer who would, apart from this section, be liable to pay an amount of statutory sick pay to an employee in respect of a qualifying day (the ‘day in question’) shall be entitled to withhold payment of that amount if—
(a ) the day in question is one in respect of which he has not been duly notified in accordance with regulations under subsection (1) above; or
(b ) he has not been so notified in respect of any of the first three qualifying days in a period of entitlement (a...
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