Statutory Sick Pay 2026: SSP is now paid from the first day, with no lower earnings limit

Since 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in the UK is payable from the first full day of sickness, and every employee qualifies regardless of how little they earn. The statutory sick pay 2026 changes, made by the Employment Rights Act 2025, abolish the three unpaid waiting days, end the lower earnings limit test for SSP, and set the weekly rate at £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. For payroll, SSP is now calculated for each employee and owed on every short absence.

What the SSP changes in April 2026 removed

Before 6 April 2026, three rules meant many absences paid no SSP:

• Waiting days. SSP was not payable for the first three qualifying days of a period of sickness, so it began on day four.
• The four-day rule. A period of sickness only counted for SSP if it lasted at least four consecutive days, including non-working days.
• The lower earnings limit. An employee whose average weekly earnings were below the National Insurance lower earnings limit (£125 a week in 2025/26) received no SSP.

Sections 10 and 11 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 removed all three, and sections 12 and 13 make the same changes for Northern Ireland. A statutory instrument (SI 2026/373) brought all four sections into force on 6 April 2026. A period of incapacity for work (the legal term for a stretch of sickness absence) now needs to last only one full day.

Part-time and low-paid staff gain most: a worker on two short shifts a week with average weekly earnings under £125, previously never eligible, now qualifies from the first day off sick.

The new rate: £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings

The weekly SSP rate for 2026/27 is the lower of two figures:

1. the flat rate of £123.25 a week (set by the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026), or
2. 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings.

Average weekly earnings are calculated over the "relevant period": at least eight weeks ending with the last normal payday before the sickness. The calculation counts all earnings on which Class 1 National Insurance (charged on employment earnings) is due, or would be due if the employee earned enough to pay it. The flat rate is the lower figure for anyone earning about £154 a week or more (£123.25 ÷ 0.8), so full-time staff still receive £123.25. Below that level, each employee's rate is 80% of their own average weekly earnings.

SSP is paid through payroll on the normal payday, with income tax and National Insurance deducted like any other pay.

Worked example: a part-time worker earning £120 a week

Take an employee who works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and earns £120 a week. She is off sick on Monday and Tuesday and returns on Wednesday.

Under the old rules: £120 is below the £125 lower earnings limit, and a two-day absence was shorter than the four-day minimum. SSP due: £0.

Under the rules from 6 April 2026:

1. Weekly rate: 80% × £120 = £96, which is lower than £123.25, so £96 applies.
2. Daily rate: £96 ÷ 3 qualifying days = £32.
3. SSP due: 2 sick qualifying days × £32 = £64.

A full-time colleague earning £400 a week over five days receives the flat rate, because 80% of £400 (£320) is above £123.25. Her daily rate is £123.25 ÷ 5 = £24.65, so a three-day absence pays 3 × £24.65 = £73.95. Before April, the same absence was too short to qualify and paid nothing.

Qualifying days, linked periods and the 28-week maximum

SSP is paid only for qualifying days: the days the employee normally works under the contract. Where the employer and employee agree that there are no working days in a week, Wednesday becomes the qualifying day. An employee who works a minute or more before going home sick has not had a full day of sickness, so that day does not count.

Two periods of sickness separated by 8 weeks (56 days) or less are linked and treated as one period. Now that a single day counts, a run of one-day absences across a few months can form one linked period. Within a linked period, the SSP rate is fixed at the start of the first absence, even if the employee's pay changes later.

SSP lasts for a maximum of 28 weeks in one period of entitlement (broadly, one linked run of absence). The entitlement limit is 28 times the employee's own weekly rate, so the part-time worker's cap is 28 × £96 = £2,688, not 28 × £123.25. Entitlement also ends once linked periods continue for more than three years. When an employee does not qualify, or SSP is ending, the employer must issue form SSP1 so the employee can claim state benefits (Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit).

Fit notes, notice and the records to keep

An employee must tell the employer about the sickness within the employer's own time limit, or within 7 days if none is set. The employer can refuse SSP for the days the notice was late, unless the employee had a good reason for the delay.

For the first 7 days in a row (counting non-working days), the employee self-certifies (confirms the sickness without a medical note). An employer can ask for a fit note (the medical statement of fitness for work) only from day 8 onwards. A GP (family doctor), hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist can issue a fit note. A late fit note is not a reason to withhold SSP.

Employers can choose how to record sickness absence, but HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC, the UK tax authority) may ask to see those records in a dispute. Payroll records, including leave and sickness absence, must be kept for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

No recovery from HMRC, and how company sick pay offsets SSP

Employers pay the full cost of SSP. The Percentage Threshold Scheme, which let some employers reclaim SSP, was abolished on 6 April 2014, and no general recovery scheme has replaced it. HMRC pays SSP directly only in narrow cases: when the employer is insolvent, or when it fails to pay after a formal decision that SSP is due.

Many employers run a company sick pay scheme (also called occupational or contractual sick pay), which can pay more than SSP but never less. The two payments are not added together: under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, contractual pay for a sick day counts towards the SSP owed for that day, and SSP paid counts towards the contractual pay.

If the part-time worker's contract pays full pay for sick days (£120 ÷ 3 = £40 a day), she is owed 2 × £40 = £80 for Monday and Tuesday. The employer pays £80 in total, of which £64 is SSP and £16 is the company top-up. Payroll still calculates the SSP element, because the employer must show that at least the statutory amount was paid. Once the company scheme's entitlement is used up, SSP continues alone until the 28-week maximum is reached. Days covered by company sick pay also count towards that maximum.

Summary

From 6 April 2026, SSP is paid from the first full day of sickness to every employee, at £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Absences within 56 days of each other share one rate and one 28-week maximum, and employers cannot reclaim SSP from HMRC.

On a spreadsheet, each short absence now means four manual steps: average weekly earnings, the comparison with the flat rate, a daily rate and a linked-period check. Flux calculates the SSP rate per employee on every pay run, applies the linking and 28-week rules, and updates the flat rate each April.