SSP Reclaimed

This records Statutory Sick Pay reclaimed back from HMRC, which reduces the overall cost of wages rather than adding to it. It normally carries a credit balance — the opposite of a typical overheads account.

Real-world examples

Why this code sees so little use today

The general scheme that let employers reclaim Statutory Sick Pay from HMRC (the Percentage Threshold Scheme) was withdrawn for SSP paid after 6 April 2014. A temporary Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme reopened recovery for small and medium employers between 2020 and 2021, but that scheme has since closed too. For most UK employers today, SSP paid to staff is simply an unrecoverable cost sitting in the wages codes — 7010 remains in the Sage chart of accounts largely as a legacy code, and would only see an entry if a future rebate scheme were introduced, or when reconciling a genuinely historic claim.

If a recovery scheme is active

On the rare occasions a scheme has been open — such as the 2020–21 Coronavirus SSP Rebate Scheme — the accounting runs the reverse of a normal cost: a credit of the reclaimed amount to 7010 (SSP Reclaimed) and a debit to 1200 (Bank Current Account) once HMRC pays it across, reducing the wages cost already recorded elsewhere rather than adding a new expense. Whether this code carries any balance at all in a given year depends entirely on whether a recovery scheme happens to be running, not on what industry the business is in.

Commonly confused with

Because code 7009 (Adjustments) sits right next to this one in Overheads, it's a common mis-posting target. Code 7010 is specifically for ssp reclaimed, while 7009 covers adjustments — similar in nature, but keeping them separate is what makes the overheads section of your management accounts meaningful rather than a single lumped total.

What a mis-posting here costs you

An error posting to SSP Reclaimed won't change total overhead spend, but it will distort the overheads breakdown that's usually reviewed line by line each month to spot cost creep.

Other codes in Overheads