London employers: Statutory Sick Pay now starts on day one

This is the first winter of day-one sick pay. Since 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has been paid from the first full day an employee is off sick, and staff on low pay qualify too. For a London café, shop or salon with part-time staff, the two-day stomach bug that cost nothing in sick pay last winter now goes through the payroll.

What changed on 6 April 2026

Until 5 April 2026, a spell of sickness had to last at least four days in a row before SSP was due at all, and the first three working days of it were unpaid "waiting days". Anyone earning under the lower earnings limit, £125 a week in 2025/26, got no SSP.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 removed all three rules. HMRC's guidance on absences around 6 April 2026 says SSP is now "available to all eligible employees regardless of their earnings" and "payable from the first full day of sickness absence". The weekly amount is £123.25 or 80 per cent of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Two things have not changed. SSP is still paid for up to 28 weeks, and only for the days the person would normally have worked. And HMRC's rates page for employers is blunt: "You cannot recover Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)." Every pound comes out of the business.

Who gets 80 per cent rather than £123.25

The flat rate is a ceiling. Eighty per cent of average weekly earnings comes in below £123.25 for anyone averaging under about £154 a week, the line HMRC's own transition guidance draws at £154.05. In practice that is the part-timer: the weekend shift, the two evenings a week, the few hours of cleaning.

Average weekly earnings are normally taken over the 8 weeks before the sickness starts. Someone who joined recently still qualifies, and you average what they have been paid so far.

The daily amount is the weekly figure divided by the number of days they normally work. For a five-day worker on the full rate, that is £24.65 a day.

A winter week, costed

Illustration, not a real client. A café in Brixton has two staff.

Maya works Monday to Friday and earns £480 a week. Eighty per cent of that is £384, more than £123.25, so she gets the flat rate of £24.65 for each working day. A cold keeps her at home from Monday to Wednesday. Three days at £24.65 is £73.95.

Tom works Saturdays and Sundays and earns £115 a week. Eighty per cent is £92 a week, or £46 for each of his two working days. He is off sick for one weekend, so his SSP is £92.

Together that is £165.95 of sick pay for one bad week. Under last winter's rules the same week cost nothing: Maya's three days were too short to count, and Tom earned under £125 a week. Neither figure includes the cost of covering their shifts.

What you can and cannot ask for

The employer guide to SSP on gov.uk sets the ground rules, and most small employers only need four of them.

• Notice. Staff should tell you they are sick by the deadline you set, or within 7 days if you have not set one. You cannot insist they tell you in person or on a special form.

• Fit notes. You can only ask for one if they are off for more than 7 days in a row, counting non-working days. A two-day bug needs no note.

• Going home ill. "You cannot count a day as a sick day if an employee has worked for a minute or more before they go home sick." SSP starts with the next full day off.

• Not eligible. If someone does not qualify, send them form SSP1 within 7 days of their first day off.

Before the next bug

1. Check that your payroll software applies day-one SSP and the 80 per cent test. HMRC's own advice to employers was to make sure their payroll provider was ready. SSP goes through payroll like wages, on the normal payday with tax and National Insurance deducted. Our note on running payroll and reporting each pay run to HMRC walks through that cycle.

2. Take SSP "waiting days" out of contracts, staff handbooks and rota notes. You can pay more than SSP under a company sick pay scheme, but never less.

3. Write down each person's normal working days, especially for part-timers, so the daily rate comes out right.

4. Put a winter of short absences into the budget. Our guide to statutory sick, maternity and holiday pay for small employers has a worked example you can copy.

The £123.25 rate applies until 5 April 2027. The figure for 2027/28 has not been published yet, so check it on gov.uk before you set next year's staffing budget.

About the author

Harvey Dhillon is the founder and CEO of Zmartly, a UK accountancy firm for small businesses. He grew up in West London and worked in finance roles in investment banking, wealth management and private equity, starting at Barclays, before leaving in 2020 to build the firm. He is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA, CGMA).

Featured photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash.