ERA 2025: Statutory Sick Pay — Changes from Day One

The Employment Rights Act 2025 removes the three waiting days before Statutory Sick Pay begins. Previously, workers received SSP from the fourth day of illness. Under ERA 2025, SSP is payable from day one of absence. The qualifying earnings threshold — which excluded some lower-paid workers from SSP eligibility — is also removed.

For employers, the cost implication is real but manageable. An employee who is genuinely ill can now claim from the first day. You can no longer use the three-day wait as a de facto deterrent to short-term absence. If that has been part of your absence management strategy, it needs to change.

Mellow's absence module automatically calculates SSP entitlement including the updated day one rules. PAYE payslips reflect SSP correctly when the module is connected to the payroll engine. The change also means short-term absence recording matters more than it used to — because every absence from day one now potentially carries a pay obligation. Accurate absence logs, visible to HR and managers, are not optional under the reformed rules.