Statutory sick pay: the complete employer guide

Statutory Sick Pay is the minimum amount employers must pay eligible employees who are off sick. From April 2025, the three-day waiting period is abolished — SSP is payable from the first qualifying day of absence. The weekly rate for 2025/26 is £116.75. Understanding how SSP works — who qualifies, how it is calculated, and when it ends — is a core payroll responsibility.

Eligibility requires that the employee earns at or above the lower earnings limit (£123/week for 2025/26). Employees earning below this threshold do not qualify for SSP but may qualify for Employment and Support Allowance. The employee must also be sick for at least one qualifying day — any day they are normally contracted to work counts as a qualifying day.

SSP is payable for up to 28 weeks per period of incapacity for work (PIW). Where two periods of sickness are separated by fewer than eight weeks, they are linked and treated as a single PIW — so the 28-week maximum runs across the linked periods. Once the 28-week limit is reached, SSP ends and the employee may be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance.

Self-certification applies for the first seven days of absence. From the eighth day, an employee needs a fit note (Statement of Fitness for Work) from their GP or other healthcare professional. The fit note may say the employee is not fit for work, or it may say they may be fit for work subject to certain adjustments — phased return, amended duties, altered hours, or adapted working environment. Where a fit note recommends adjustments, the employer and employee should discuss whether those adjustments are possible.

SSP is processed through payroll and is subject to income tax and NI in the same way as regular pay. Since the removal of the SSP recovery scheme (which was reinstated temporarily during COVID-19 and then ended again), most employers cannot recover SSP from HMRC. Small employers who qualify under specific rules may be able to recover some SSP — check current HMRC guidance for eligibility.

Employers can pay more than the statutory minimum. Enhanced sick pay — whether full pay for a period, or a sliding scale reducing over time — is a contractual benefit that some employers offer. Enhanced sick pay obligations are set out in the employment contract and must be honoured. If your contract says full pay for four weeks, SSP minimum applies for whatever period after that — the contract does not override the statutory minimum, and the statutory minimum does not override the contractual entitlement when it is more generous.

For absence management, the return-to-work interview is the most effective tool. A brief, structured conversation on the first day back — covering how the employee is feeling, whether any adjustments are needed, and whether any underlying concerns contributed to the absence — has consistent evidence of reducing absence frequency. See our guide on return to work interviews: best practice for the format.

Read our ERA 2025 update on statutory sick pay from day one for the details of the waiting day change and what it means for absence costs.

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