Starting April 6, 2026, new legislation will change how Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is administered for sick days at work. The Labour Party government has confirmed that from this date, SSP will be available to all eligible employees regardless of their earnings.
Under the new rules, SSP will be paid from the very first full day of sickness absence. The payment will amount to 80% of an employee’s average weekly earnings (AWE) or the updated flat weekly rate of £123.25, whichever is lower.
Employees whose sickness absence began before April 6, 2026, and who previously did not qualify for SSP due to earning below the lower earnings limit (LEL) might now be eligible from April 6, 2026. Specifically, eligibility applies for sickness absences starting on or after September 22, 2025, or for absences interrupted by returns to work between September 22, 2025, and April 5, 2026.
However, employees with uninterrupted sickness absence starting on or before September 21, 2025, and continuing through April 5, 2026, will not qualify for SSP from April 6, 2026. This also applies to linked absences extending into or after April 6, 2026. Those employees will regain SSP entitlement only after returning to work for at least eight weeks.
The concept of waiting days, where SSP was not paid during the initial days of sickness, is abolished from April 6, 2026. For absences restarting on or after April 6, 2026, the rules depend on the duration of sickness: if the absence lasts three days or less, SSP will be paid only for qualifying days from April 6 onwards. If it lasts four days or more, SSP applies from the first day of the restarted absence.
Employees already receiving SSP before April 6, 2026, will transition to the new payment rates from that date. Where an employee’s average weekly earnings would reduce their SSP, the new flat rate of £123.25 will apply instead of 80% of AWE. This affects employees earning between £125 and £154.05 per week who remain off sick as of April 6, 2026.
These adjustments continue until the employee returns to work or their SSP entitlement expires. Should a worker return to work after April 6 and later experience another sickness absence, SSP will then be calculated as 80% of their AWE for the new absence, including linked sickness periods.