ESA payment where employer won’t pay SSP

Hello all,

I have a client who is in a bit of a pickle. His employer has refused to pay SSP due to him (we’ve got an employment caseworker who has taken him on for help with the dispute mechanism), however, in the meantime he has no income whatsoever.

Does anyone know of any way ESA could pay someone in this circumstance and possibly claw the money back from another source later on?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

We get this a lot in Sunderland. If the client is fully entitled to SSP we find that a threatening letter to the employer outlining the fact that he/she has no legal choice in the matter, and he/she may end up paying a lot more in fines and costs if they refuse to pay SSP normally does the trick .Quoting illegal deduction of wages, refusal to make statutory payments, breach of contract and UK employment law etc etc etc can put the willies up a lot of employers who are trying it on. I have lost count of the amount of times an employer tell clients “its not our company policy to pay Statutory Sick Pay” We normally recommend they get a dictionary and look up the word “statutory”.
I dont believe that ESA can be paid if SSP should be paid, as it would just encourage employers to expect their staff to claim ESA instead of meeting their statutory obligations(but I may be wrong on this one)

They should be able to claim CTB/HB based upon income (if renting and single without savings) in the meantime.

I know this doesn’t answer the question but contacting the employer to sort this out is normally a lot quicker than trying to deal with Jobcentre plus at the moment.

HMRC is first port of call for SSP.

Employers are either mistaken or ignorant of SSP reponsibilities in my experience.

Most people don’t like the HMRC prying into their affairs so an informative and helpful letter explaining can sometimes help.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/ssp-overview.htm#1

Firstly, thanks for all the replies, much appreciated as always.

To confirm what’s already been said, I had a call from a dm at ESA stating that there was no way to get ESA paid.

As for HB/CTB he’s now been hit with a non-commercial ten decision which I’ll have fun with instead…

Looks like the chap has to wait for HMRC to resolve the matter.

Thanks again

-David