Statutory Sick Pay From Day One: What Changed in April 2026 for Small Employers

If you run a café, a shop, a care service or any team that works shifts, sickness absence is part of normal life. What changed this year is how Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) works. From April 2026, changes made by the Employment Rights Act 2025 mean SSP is paid from the first day of sickness, and far more of your staff now qualify for it.

Here is what changed, what it means in practice, and what to check in your own business.

The Two Big Changes

The Employment Rights Act 2025 made two changes to SSP in Great Britain (sections 10 and 11 of the Act, with matching changes for Northern Ireland in sections 12 and 13).

1. The waiting days have gone: Under the old rules, SSP was not paid for the first three qualifying days of a period of sickness. Those “waiting days” have been removed. An eligible employee is now paid SSP from their first full qualifying day off sick.

• The lower earnings limit no longer decides who qualifies. Before, staff earning less than the National Insurance lower earnings limit could not get SSP at all. That test has been removed for SSP. To qualify, GOV.UK now says an employee must be classed as an employee, have done some work for you, and have been ill for at least one full working day. The lower earnings limit still exists for National Insurance; it just no longer blocks sick pay.

To keep things fair for lower earners, the amount has changed too.

How Much SSP is Now

For the 2026/27 tax year, GOV.UK sets the weekly rate of SSP at £123.25 or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. It is still paid for up to 28 weeks.

In practice:

• Someone whose average weekly earnings are above about £154 gets the flat £123.25 a week.
• Someone earning less than that gets 80% of their average weekly earnings. For example, a part-timer averaging £100 a week would get £80 a week in SSP.

Average weekly earnings are normally worked out over an eight-week period. Employees who have not yet been paid for eight weeks still qualify, so a new starter who falls ill in their first fortnight is not automatically excluded.

SSP is paid for the days the employee would normally work, known as “qualifying days”, and goes through payroll like wages, with tax and National Insurance deducted.

What This Means for Shift-Based Teams

The changes matter most in sectors with lots of part-time, variable-hours and low-hours staff, which is exactly where many small employers sit.

Short Absences Now Cost Something

A one- or two-day bug used to fall entirely inside the waiting days, so no SSP was due. Now, if someone is off sick for a full shift they would have worked, SSP is due for that day.

More of Your Team is Eligible

Weekend staff, students on a few hours a week and zero-hours workers who previously earned below the lower earnings limit may now qualify. GOV.UK also notes that agency workers may be entitled to SSP, and there are separate rules for some employment types, such as directors.

Qualifying Days Need To Be Clear

For staff with fixed patterns this is simple. For variable rotas, you need a reliable record of which days the person was actually due to work. That is usually the published rota. If your rotas live in a WhatsApp chat or on a whiteboard that gets wiped, it is harder to show which days SSP was owed.

Partial Shifts & Night Shifts Have Specific Rules

According to GOV.UK, you cannot count a day as a sick day if the employee worked for a minute or more before going home sick. Plus, if someone works a shift that ends the day after it started, and becomes sick during or after that shift, they are not eligible for SSP for that shift. It is worth making sure whoever handles payroll knows both rules.

What Has Not Changed

Some rules are the same as before, and they are still worth knowing:

• Notification: Employees should tell you they are sick within the time limit you set, or within seven days if you have not set one. You cannot insist they tell you in person or on a special form. You do not have to pay SSP for days they were late telling you, unless there is a good reason for the delay.
• Fit notes: You can only ask for a fit note if the employee is off for more than seven days in a row, including non-working days. You cannot withhold SSP because a fit note arrives late. Fit notes can now be issued by a GP or hospital doctor, a registered nurse, an occupational therapist, a pharmacist or a physiotherapist, and can be printed or digital.
• Linked periods: Two periods of sickness count as linked if each last more than one full working day and they are eight weeks or less apart.
• Form SSP1: If an employee does not qualify for SSP, or their SSP is ending, you still need to give them form SSP1 within the deadlines GOV.UK sets.
• Records: You can choose how you keep sickness records, but HMRC may ask to see them if there is a dispute over SSP.
• Contractual sick pay: SSP is a minimum so, if your contracts promise more, you must pay what the contract says.

A Short Checklist for Small Employers

1. Update your sickness absence policy and contracts: Remove any references to three waiting days or to the lower earnings limit deciding eligibility.
2. Check your payroll settings: Make sure your payroll software or bureau is applying the 2026/27 rules including no waiting days, and the lower of £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings.
3. Review who is now eligible: Look again at low-hours, casual and zero-hours staff who would not have qualified before.
4. Keep rotas as a record: Hold on to the rotas you publish, so you can show which days were qualifying days for staff on variable hours.
5. Brief your managers: Supervisors who take sickness calls should know the notification rules, the fit note rule and the partial-shift rule.
6. Get advice for tricky cases: ACAS offers free, impartial guidance and a helpline if you are unsure how the rules apply to a particular situation.

If you want to sense-check an individual amount, GOV.UK has an official SSP calculator for employers, and we have built a free SSP calculator for 2026/27 that shows whether the flat rate or the 80% rule applies. Either way, treat calculators as estimates rather than legal advice.

The Bottom Line

SSP from day one is a real cost for small employers, especially those with lots of short-notice absence and low-hours staff. But the rules themselves are straightforward once your policy, payroll and rotas are up to date. A couple of hours spent checking those now should save confusion, and disputes, the next time someone rings in sick before their shift.

About the Author

Matt Stephens is the founder of Shiftbrook, a rota and shift-planning app for UK small businesses.