diff --git a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListReader.java b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListReader.java
index 3c8e324aa2d..1803401d6ae 100644
--- a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListReader.java
+++ b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListReader.java
@@ -197,7 +197,9 @@ class SepSkipListReader extends MultiLevelSkipListReader {
     docIndex[level].read(skipStream, false);
     if (!omitTF) {
       posIndex[level].read(skipStream, false);
-      payloadPointer[level] += skipStream.readVInt();
+      if (currentFieldStoresPayloads) {
+        payloadPointer[level] += skipStream.readVInt();
+      }
     }
     
     return delta;
diff --git a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListWriter.java b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListWriter.java
index 866bac6e390..4ec9203af00 100644
--- a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListWriter.java
+++ b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/codecs/sep/SepSkipListWriter.java
@@ -188,7 +188,9 @@ class SepSkipListWriter extends MultiLevelSkipListWriter {
     if (!omitTF) {
       posIndex[level].mark();
       posIndex[level].write(skipBuffer, false);
-      skipBuffer.writeVInt((int) (curPayloadPointer - lastSkipPayloadPointer[level]));
+      if (curStorePayloads) {
+        skipBuffer.writeVInt((int) (curPayloadPointer - lastSkipPayloadPointer[level]));
+      }
     }
 
     lastSkipDoc[level] = curDoc;