Statutory Sick Pay 2026: Rates, Rules & Eligibility

What changed on 6 April 2026

Three changes took effect together, and they matter more than any single rate figure:

Waiting days are gone. SSP used to start on the fourth consecutive day of absence — three unpaid days every time. Now it's payable from day one of sickness. A single sick day, which previously paid nothing, now pays a day's SSP.

The lower earnings limit is gone. Previously you had to earn above roughly £125 a week to qualify at all, which locked out around 1.3 million low-paid workers. Now there is no minimum earnings threshold — every employee qualifies regardless of how little they earn.

The rate is now two-tier. Instead of one flat figure for everyone, SSP is the lower of a flat rate and 80% of your average weekly earnings. Low earners get a proportion of their pay rather than a flat amount designed for full-timers.

The 2026/27 rate: £123.25 or 80% of earnings

For 2026/27, Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings — whichever is lower. (Up from £118.75 in 2025/26.) Your employer divides the weekly figure by your working days to get the daily rate — £24.65 a day for a five-day week.

How the two tiers play out:

• Earn £500 a week: 80% is £400, which exceeds the flat rate → you get £123.25
• Earn £140 a week: 80% is £112, below the flat rate → you get £112
• Earn £100 a week (previously nothing): 80% is £80 → you get £80
• Priya at £150 a week: 80% is £120 → she gets £120

The design is deliberate: higher earners get the flat rate, lower earners get 80% of their actual pay, and nobody gets more than they earned. Average weekly earnings are calculated over the eight weeks of pay before the sickness began.

Work out exactly what a spell of absence is worth with the UK Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Calculator — especially useful for part-time rotas where the 80% rule changes everything.

Who qualifies now

The bar is lower than it's ever been. You qualify if you:

• are classed as an employee (not self-employed — the self-employed still get nothing, a gap the reforms didn't touch)
• have done some work for your employer (no minimum service period)
• are off sick for at least one full day
• tell your employer within their deadline, or within seven days

Agency workers, zero-hours staff, and fixed-term employees are all in scope as long as they're employees for tax purposes. The old four-consecutive-days rule is gone — a single sick day now counts.

If your employer's absence policy still mentions a minimum earnings threshold or three waiting days, it's out of date. That's worth flagging to HR, because payroll software configured for the old rules will underpay people.

Fit notes: the seven-day rule

For the first seven days of absence (including weekends), you self-certify — just tell your employer you're sick. From day eight, your employer can ask for a fit note (the old "sick note") from a GP, pharmacist, physiotherapist, or occupational therapist.

Fit notes have been modernised: they can now say "may be fit for work with adjustments" rather than a binary fit/unfit, and many are issued after phone consultations. Keep copies of everything — if a dispute arises about whether SSP was due, the paper trail decides it.

Your employer cannot demand a fit note earlier than day eight as a condition of SSP, though their own absence policy might ask for one for other reasons. Know which rule is which.

The 28-week limit and linked absences

SSP runs for a maximum of 28 weeks in a single period of sickness — unchanged by the reforms. Absences separated by fewer than 56 days are linked and count as one continuous period, so two three-month absences with a month between them share a single 28-week allowance.

Once SSP runs out, the next stop is usually Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit, depending on your National Insurance record. Your employer must give you an SSP1 form when entitlement ends so you can claim — if they don't, ask for it; the clock on your next benefit starts ticking.

Company sick pay vs SSP: know which you've got

SSP is the legal minimum — many employers pay more through company or occupational sick pay schemes. Common patterns: full pay for a set number of weeks (often tied to length of service — e.g. one month per year of service), then half pay, then SSP. Some large employers offer six months at full pay.

Check your contract or staff handbook now, not when you're ill. Two things to verify: whether the scheme has a waiting period of its own (some do, even though statutory waiting days are gone), and whether it's discretionary — "company sick pay at our discretion" means they can withhold it, and discretionary schemes are the source of most sick-pay disputes.

If your employer offers nothing above SSP, that's legal — but it's also useful information when you're comparing job offers. The difference between SSP-only and six-months-full-pay is worth thousands if you ever need it, and nobody asks about it at interviews. You should.

One more check: some contracts reduce company sick pay if you've had previous absences in a rolling 12-month period — a Bradford-factor-style sliding scale. It's legal as long as it's in the contract, but it means your entitlement this time may be less than last time. Read the exact wording before you assume.

The verdict: a genuine improvement with one hole

For the 1.3 million workers the old earnings threshold excluded, this is transformational — sick pay from day one where there was literally zero before. For full-time workers, the practical change is smaller: three waiting days removed and a modest rate rise, but the same £123.25 ceiling that's still well under half of median earnings.

The hole is the self-employed: 4 million-plus workers with no statutory sick pay at all, before and after the reforms. If that's you, income protection insurance is the only safety net — and it's worth pricing, because the state provides nothing.

One action for everyone else: check a recent payslip after any absence this year. If your employer paid from day four instead of day one, or applied an earnings threshold, you're owed money — and payroll needs correcting before it happens again. Raise it in writing so there's a record. And if you're an employer reading this: update the absence policy now — staff who discover they've been underpaid rarely stay quiet about it.