Key takeaways
- Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings if lower, paid from the first day you are off sick, for up to 28 weeks.
- Since 6 April 2026 there are no waiting days, no earnings test, and no four-day minimum — a single sick day qualifies.
- SSP is a floor, not a replacement income: £123.25 a week is roughly a quarter of median earnings.
- For the first 7 days you self-certify; from day 8 you need a fit note, and after 28 weeks SSP stops and your employer must give you an SSP1 form.
Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week — or 80% of your average weekly earnings if lower — paid from the first day you are off sick, for up to 28 weeks.
Being off sick is stressful enough without the pay maths. The good news is that the rules changed on 6 April 2026, and they changed in your favour: SSP now starts on day one. The bad news is that most of the internet still describes the old rules — three unpaid waiting days, a minimum earnings limit, a four-day minimum absence — and if you plan around those, you will underestimate what you are owed. This article uses the 2026/27 rules only.
The day-by-day maths
Weekly SSP is the lower of the flat rate (£123.25) and 80% of your average weekly earnings, divided by the number of days you normally work each week. Every qualifying day of your absence is paid — there are no waiting days to subtract. Here is the standard example, from the Statutory Sick Pay calculator:
| Step | Working |
|---|---|
| Weekly SSP (lower of £123.25 and 80% × £500) | £123.25 |
| Daily rate (£123.25 ÷ 5 qualifying days) | £24.65 |
| Waiting days excluded (2026/27) | 0 days |
| Payable days (2 weeks × 5 days) | 10 days |
| Total SSP | £246.50 |
On lower earnings the 80% rule bites instead: at £100 a week average earnings, weekly SSP is £80.00 (80% of £100), and one week off pays £80.00. And the long end: 28 weeks at the full rate pays £3,451.00 in total — the maximum SSP for one period of sickness.
What changed on 6 April 2026
Three things were abolished together under the Employment Rights Act 2025. First, the 3 waiting days: SSP used to start on day 4, so a one-week absence paid only two days. Now it starts on day 1, and a one-week absence pays five days. Second, the lower earnings limit: SSP used to require earnings above a threshold, which excluded the lowest-paid workers — the people who needed it most. Now there is no earnings test at all. Third, the 4-day minimum: you used to have to be off for at least four days in a row before SSP started. Now a single sick day qualifies. Together, these changes mean short absences — the most common kind — are finally covered properly.
What SSP does not cover
SSP is a floor, not a replacement income. £123.25 a week is roughly a quarter of median earnings, and for most people it is a sharp drop. Three things matter more than the SSP figure itself. First, occupational sick pay: many employers pay full or half pay for a period, on top of or instead of SSP — check your contract, because this is usually worth far more than the statutory amount. Second, the 28-week limit: after 28 weeks SSP stops entirely, and you need to look at other support. Third, the self-employed: SSP is for employees only. If you are self-employed and off sick, there is no SSP — you would look at other benefits instead, and this is one of the real financial risks of self-employment that the self-employed tax calculator cannot fix.
Fit notes, and the 7-day rule
For the first 7 days of sickness you self-certify: you tell your employer you are ill, and that is enough. From day 8 you need a fit note — a "statement of fitness for work" from your GP or another healthcare professional — and your employer can ask for it. The fit note does more than unlock SSP: it can say you "may be fit for work" with adjustments, which starts a conversation about phased returns, changed duties or different hours. That conversation is often worth more than the SSP itself, because a phased return gets you back to full pay faster than a long absence followed by a cold restart.
One thing the fit note cannot do is extend SSP past 28 weeks. At 28 weeks your employer must give you an SSP1 form, which is the formal end of SSP and the starting point for claiming other benefits. Keep that form: it is the evidence that your SSP has ended, and you will need it for any claim that follows. And keep your own record of the absence too — dates, fit notes, payslips showing SSP. If there is ever a dispute about how many weeks you were paid, your records are what settle it.
When your employer refuses SSP
SSP is a legal entitlement, not a favour — but refusals happen, and they usually come in three flavours. The first is "you did not qualify": your employer says you were not ill long enough, or your earnings were too low. Since April 2026 there is no earnings floor and no minimum number of days, so both of those reasons are dead — but an employer using an old payroll system may still apply them. The second is "you did not tell us in time": employers can set a notification deadline, but it cannot be unreasonably short, and if you were genuinely unable to phone in, the deadline does not stand. The third is silence: no SSP on the payslip, no explanation, no form. That is the most common one, and the easiest to fix with a written request.
If your employer refuses, they must give you form SSP1 explaining why, and you can take that form to HMRC, who will decide whether SSP is due. HMRC's decision is binding: if they say you qualify, your employer must pay. You can also claim Employment and Support Allowance while the dispute runs, so a refusal does not leave you with nothing. The practical advice is to keep everything in writing — the date you reported sick, the fit note, the payslips — because the dispute turns on dates, and dates are what get forgotten. And if you are on a zero-hours contract, an agency contract, or you work irregular shifts, none of that removes the entitlement: the qualifying-days rule is about the days you were contracted to work, and your employer must agree them with you. If they will not, HMRC will.
How it is paid, and what to do
Your employer pays SSP through payroll on your normal pay day, deducting tax and National Insurance as usual. You need to follow your employer's notification rules — usually telling them by a set time on the first day — and for absences over 7 days you will need a fit note from your GP. If your employer says you do not qualify, ask for the reason in writing: since April 2026 there is no earnings test and no waiting period, so the commonest refusals no longer have a legal basis. If the dispute continues, ACAS offers free advice, and HMRC can decide SSP disputes formally.
One more check while you are off: your payslip. SSP should appear as its own line, and your tax code should not have changed. If your pay drops far enough, your monthly tax may fall too — PAYE is cumulative, so a low month usually means less tax that month, which softens the blow slightly.
The one thing to remember about SSP is that the old rules are dead.
There are no waiting days, no earnings floor, and no four-day minimum — if you are off sick on a day you were contracted to work, that day is payable at £123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings if that is lower, from the first day. The old system punished the lowest-paid and the shortest absences; the new one does not, and if your employer or your payroll system is still applying the old rules, that is not a policy difference — it is an error, and it is owed to you. Check your next sick payslip against the statutory sick pay calculator: put in your qualifying days, your weeks off, and your average weekly earnings, and compare the total. If it does not match, you now know exactly which rule to quote.
Check your sick pay
Put in your qualifying days, your weeks off, and your average weekly earnings, and compare the total with your payslip.
Figures from the 2026/27 rates, last checked against GOV.UK on 5 November 2026. See all the rates on UK tax rates 2026/27. Next in this series: Redundancy pay: the tax-free £30,000 rule, explained.