From April 2014, Employers can no longer reclaim SSP from HMRC in cases of employee sickness.

SSP - Workplace sickness gets pricier 1SSP is £87.55 a week for up to 28 weeks. Until now, employers would foot the entire monthly bill for SSP payments up to 13% of its national insurance contributions that month but the state would reimburse the rest.

This gave employers having over a certain level of sickness no incentive to bring sickness levels down.

Now, employers will foot the whole bill.