Statutory Sick Pay: The Key Changes Employers Need to Apply from 6 April 2026
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has undergone its biggest overhaul in years following the
Employment Rights Act 2025.
The changes came into effect on 6 April 2026, and if your payroll
team hasn’t already reviewed them, now is the time.
Here’s a practical guide to what’s changed and what it means for managing employee
sickness absence.
Who’s Eligible Now?
- The Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) has been removed. Every employee
with a contract of employment is now eligible for Statutory Sick Pay, regardless
of how much they earn, provided they meet the basic qualifying conditions of
being an employee, being off sick, and remaining within the maximum entitlement
period. - Employees who previously earned below the Lower Earnings Limit and had no SSP
entitlement can now receive Statutory Sick Pay for qualifying absences on or
after 6 April 2026. - Waiting days have been abolished. A Period of Incapacity for
Work (PIW) can now begin with a single qualifying day of sickness, meaning short
or intermittent absences are much more likely to qualify for SSP and count
towards the 28-week entitlement period.
How the New Calculation Works
- The standard rate of Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 per week.
- Employees receive the lower of:
- 80% of their Average Weekly Earnings (AWE), or
- The weekly SSP rate of £123.25.
- Average Weekly Earnings are calculated using the
eight-week reference period ending on the last payday before
the sickness absence began. - All SSP payments should be rounded up to the nearest whole penny.
- For linked periods of incapacity where absences occur within
56 days of one another, the Average Weekly Earnings calculated
for the initial sickness period continue to apply. - SSP is now payable from the first qualifying day of sickness.
The maximum entitlement remains 28 weeks for continuous or
linked periods of sickness.
Protecting Employees Already Receiving SSP
Employees already receiving Statutory Sick Pay before
6 April 2026 automatically moved onto the new weekly rate, ensuring
nobody lost out because of the legislative changes.
One important transitional point is that employees who were already receiving SSP
before 6 April and earning between £125.00 and £154.05 per week
now receive the full weekly SSP rate of £123.25, rather than a
reduced payment.
Enforcement Has Changed Too
Responsibility for handling Statutory Sick Pay disputes has also changed.
Disputes are now dealt with through the
Fair Work Agency (FWA) and, where necessary,
Employment Tribunals, replacing elements of the previous dispute
process managed by HMRC.
Payroll and HR teams should ensure they are familiar with this new route if a
sickness pay dispute escalates.
What This Means for Your Business
The removal of the Lower Earnings Limit is likely to have the greatest impact on
employers with a significant number of part-time, casual or lower-paid employees who
previously did not qualify for Statutory Sick Pay.
It is worth reviewing your payroll software to ensure the Lower Earnings Limit has
been completely removed from SSP eligibility checks rather than simply updated.
The abolition of waiting days also changes the treatment of short-term absences, as
one or two-day periods of sickness can now trigger SSP where they previously would
not have done so.
Where Pecunia Pro Fits In
We’ve already updated Statutory Sick Pay processing for our payroll clients to
reflect the April 2026 changes, including the removal of the Lower Earnings Limit,
the abolition of waiting days and the updated weekly SSP rate.
If you manage payroll in-house, this is exactly the type of legislative change that’s
worth spending a few minutes checking against your payroll software settings to make
sure everything is operating correctly.
Speak to Pecunia Pro
Not sure your payroll system is applying the new Statutory Sick Pay rules correctly?
Call us on
020 8143 1529
or email
info@pecuniapro.co.uk,
and we’ll be happy to carry out a quick review.