SSP scheme extended to cover the extremely vulnerable

On Thursday 16 April, the Statutory Sick Pay (General) (Coronavirus Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 were amended. Now, individuals who are 'shielding' in line with public health guidance can be paid SSP whilst they remain at home to protect themselves from becoming infected.

Clinically extremely vulnerable people may include the following people. Disease severity, history or treatment levels will also affect who is in the group.

1. Solid organ transplant recipients.
2. People with specific cancers:
   • people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
   • people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy
   • people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
   • people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
   • people having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
   • people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
3. People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD).
4. People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell).
5. People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection.
6. Women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired.

SSP is only payable to those people who have been advised by their doctor/NHS/Public Health England that they must "follow rigorously shielding measures for the period specified in the notification". You can ask to see a copy of the notification before you process a claim for SSP.

Our Coronavirus updates

We're working hard to keep you up to date with legal developments around Coronavirus. We've set up a portal which includes lots of helpful articles and advice to help you.

If you have a query, that we haven't answered, please contact us.