The Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS) which allowed Employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid to employees has been scrapped from 6th April 2014.
Under PTS Employers could reclaim SSP where the SSP paid was more than 13% of the Class 1 National Insurance Contributions due for the month.
The reason the Government are giving for this change is that they believe that PTS gave Employers an incentive to discourage long-term sick employees to return to work.
The Government has announced that the savings (anticipated to be £70 million) will be put towards a new Health & Work Service instead. This is due to start in 2015 and is intended to help encourage employees to return to work by providing free Occupational Health Assessments for employees who have been off sick for 4 weeks or more.
Whether this is successful remains to be seen but, for now, Employers will be carrying the cost for sick employees !!
