Statutory Sick Pay, now paid from day one

What changed in April 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 made two changes to SSP in England, Scotland and Wales, which apply to days off sick from 6 April 2026. If you were already off sick before then, some special rules apply, so check with your employer.

The 80% rule only matters to people earning less than about £154 a week, since 80% of that is £123.25. Everyone earning more gets the flat £123.25.

Who gets SSP

You need to be an employee, and to be off sick for at least one full day you'd normally have worked. A day when you start work and go home ill doesn't count, however early you leave. Agency workers can get SSP too.

You can't get it while you're getting Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance, if you got Employment and Support Allowance in the 85 days before, or once you've had 28 weeks of it. Self-employed people don't get SSP, though they may be able to claim Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance instead.

If you have two jobs, you may get SSP from each employer, each worked out on the pay from that job.

How much you get

SSP is paid for the days you'd normally work, which the rules call qualifying days. A full week off is paid at the weekly rate. For a part week, the weekly rate is divided by the number of days you work in a week, and you get that for each day off.

Priya earns £30,000 a year, about £576.92 a week, and works Monday to Friday. 80% of her pay is far above £123.25, so her SSP is the flat rate: £24.65 a day. She's off for eight working days, from a Monday to the Wednesday of the next week.

Under the old rules her first three days would have been unpaid, leaving five days at £23.75: £118.75. The change is worth £78.45 to her for this one absence.

Sam works three days a week and earns £145 a week. 80% of that is £116, which is less than £123.25, so his SSP is £116 a week, or £38.67 a day. Off sick for two days, he gets £77.34. Before April 2026 he'd have got nothing: both days would have been waiting days.

For someone earning £100 a week, SSP is now £80 a week. Under the old rules, earning under £125 meant no SSP at all.

Work out your own sick pay →

Average earnings

Your employer works out your average weekly earnings from what you were paid before tax in roughly the 8 weeks before you went off sick, including overtime, bonuses and anything else that goes through payroll. A recent pay rise, or a quiet spell with little overtime, can make the average different from your salary.

If you're new and haven't been paid yet, your employer uses the pay your contract says you'll get.

Longer and repeated sickness

Linked absences. Two spells of sickness that are 8 weeks or less apart count as one. Their weeks add up towards the 28-week limit, and your rate is fixed by the first absence in the chain, even if your pay has changed since.

Fit notes. For the first 7 days in a row, counting days you don't work, you can tell your employer yourself that you're ill. After that they can ask for a fit note, which a GP, nurse, pharmacist or other healthcare professional can give you.

When SSP runs out. Your employer should give you form SSP1 when your SSP is ending, or if you can't get it. You can use it to claim Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance.

Company sick pay and tax

Your employer can pay more than SSP, but never less. Many offer full pay for a set number of weeks. Company sick pay usually includes the SSP you're due rather than adding to it, so your contract or staff handbook is the place to check what you'll really get.

SSP is paid through payroll like your normal wages, with Income Tax and National Insurance taken off in the usual way.