# STATUTORY SICK PAY DISPUTE LETTER
Date: 2 June 2025
Parties: Maya Thompson and Greenfield Catering Services Limited
## 1. Purpose and parties
Maya Thompson is a part-time kitchen supervisor employed by Greenfield Catering Services Limited under a contract requiring Monday to Friday as her qualifying days. She was incapable of work from Monday 12 May to Friday 23 May 2025, ten consecutive qualifying days. She notified Operations Manager Lewis Grant by telephone on 12 May, following the employer's sickness procedure, and sent a fit note dated 16 May covering the whole period.
## 2. Facts, scope and terms
For the 2025/26 tax year, the Statutory Sick Pay rate is £118.75 a week and the lower earnings limit is £125 a week. Maya's average weekly earnings in the relevant calculation period were £420.00, so she exceeds the lower earnings limit. She is an employee, had a period of incapacity lasting at least four consecutive qualifying days, notified Greenfield promptly and supplied medical evidence. No linked period of incapacity is relied on. The calculation uses her contractual Monday-to-Friday qualifying days rather than calendar weekends.
## 3. Process and responsibilities
The first three qualifying days, Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 May, are waiting days and do not attract SSP. The payable qualifying days are Thursday 15, Friday 16, Monday 19, Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21, Thursday 22 and Friday 23 May: seven days. For a five-day qualifying week, the daily rate is £118.75 ÷ 5 = £23.75, making SSP due £23.75 x 7 = £166.25.
## 4. Evidence, records and safeguards
Greenfield's payslip dated 30 May 2025 paid Maya £71.25 and its accompanying email said that only three days were payable. That reasoning treats waiting days as the entire entitlement and is wrong. The shortfall is £166.25 - £71.25 = £95.00, subject to ordinary payroll deductions. Maya asks Greenfield to correct the payroll record and pay the £95.00 gross shortfall by Monday 9 June 2025.
## 5. Review, escalation and outcome
Maya asks Greenfield to provide a written explanation of the £95.00 calculation by 9 June 2025. This is an amount dispute: the shortfall should be pursued through HMRC's SSP dispute route. If Greenfield instead decides that Maya is not entitled to SSP, it should issue an SSP1 form under the applicable employer-notification rules and timing, stating the reason and relevant date. Greenfield should identify the precise eligibility condition it disputes and give the calculation supporting any different figure; an unexplained refusal does not alter the statutory rate. An SSP1 relevant to a non-entitlement decision is additional to, and does not replace, payment of an amount properly due.
## 6. Reservations and practical protections
Maya encloses her contract, the 12 May notification record, the 16 May fit note, her May payslip, the £420.00 average-earnings calculation and the 2025/26 rate reference. She asks Payroll Manager Rachel Evans to confirm receipt by Wednesday 4 June. She remains willing to correct a genuine payroll error and will provide further evidence reasonably required, but nothing in this letter admits that the underpayment was lawful.
## 7. England and Wales law and completion
If Greenfield neither pays the £95.00 shortfall nor provides a proper written explanation of the calculation by 9 June 2025, Maya reserves the right to use HMRC's SSP dispute route, raise a formal grievance and pursue an Employment Tribunal claim for unlawful deduction from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, subject to applicable time limits and Acas early conciliation. If Greenfield says that Maya is not entitled to SSP, she will ask for an SSP1 under the applicable employer-notification rules and timing; that non-entitlement process is distinct from this amount dispute. She does not waive any separate contractual sick-pay entitlement, and she does not withdraw this dispute if Greenfield later supplies a different calculation. She will not treat the dispute as withdrawn until payment or an adequate explanation is received. This completed fictional letter is dated 2 June 2025 and governed by England and Wales law.