Statutory Sick Pay calculator for employers

What changed on 6 April 2026

Sections 10 and 11 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 came into force on 6 April 2026 (S.I. 2026/373) and changed SSP in three ways:

• No waiting days. SSP used to start on the fourth qualifying day of sickness. The waiting-day rule in section 155(1) is gone, so SSP is paid from the first qualifying day.
• One day is enough. A period of incapacity for work used to need four or more days in a row. It is now one day or more (section 152(2)).
• No lower earnings limit, and an 80% cap instead. The weekly rate is now the lower of £123.25 and 80% of the employee's normal weekly earnings (section 157(1)), so low earners now get SSP at 80% of what they normally earn.

The £123.25 rate applies for the 2026/27 tax year, from 6 April 2026, under the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026. GOV.UK's employer guide to SSP states the same rules.

How the calculator works it out

1. Weekly rate: the lower of £123.25 and 80% of normal weekly earnings.
2. Daily rate: the weekly rate divided by the number of qualifying days in that week, Sunday to Saturday (section 157(3)). Qualifying days are the days the employee is required to work, agreed between you; there must be at least one a week (section 154).
3. Days paid: every qualifying day in a period of sickness, from the first. A day off sick on a day they don't work still counts towards the period, but pays nothing.
4. Linked periods: two periods 8 weeks (56 days) or less apart are treated as one (section 152(3)), so the 28 weeks carry on across them. A longer gap starts a fresh 28 weeks.
5. The 28-week limit: SSP stops when the total paid in one period of entitlement reaches 28 times the weekly rate (section 155). For someone with five qualifying days a week that is 140 days.
6. Rounding: if a payment includes a fraction of a penny, it is rounded up to the next penny (regulation 11 of the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982).

A worked example

Greta Vogel works Monday to Friday at NovaTech's Manchester office and normally earns £600 a week. She is off sick from Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 October 2026. 80% of £600 is £480, more than £123.25, so her weekly rate is £123.25 and her daily rate £24.65. Under the old rules Monday to Wednesday were waiting days and she'd have got nothing. Now she gets 3 × £24.65 = £73.95.

A colleague on £100 a week, working Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is off from Thursday 22 to Tuesday 27 October. Her weekly rate is 80% of £100 = £80, a daily rate of £26.666… over three qualifying days, and the period holds two of them, Friday and Monday: £53.333…, paid as £53.34. Before April 2026 she earned under the £125 lower earnings limit and got no SSP at all.

What the calculator leaves out

• Eligibility. The employee needs a contract of employment, must have done some work under it and must tell you they're sick. They don't qualify while getting Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance, and there are other exceptions on GOV.UK's eligibility page.
• Late notification. You don't have to pay SSP for days an employee was late telling you about without good reason. Your own time limit applies, or 7 days if you don't set one.
• Sickness that started before 6 April 2026. Transitional rules in S.I. 2026/373 decide how a period running across that date is paid; the calculator only takes sickness from 6 April 2026.
• One rate throughout. It uses one weekly earnings figure and one pattern of qualifying days. If a new period of entitlement starts after a gap of more than 8 weeks, work out its earnings again for that period. A series of linked periods that lasts more than 3 years ends entitlement.
• Form SSP1. When SSP ends, or the employee doesn't qualify, you send them form SSP1; GOV.UK sets out the deadlines.

A company sick pay scheme can pay more than SSP, but not less. For holiday while off sick, statutory annual leave keeps accruing during sick leave; see the annual leave calculator. To score short, frequent absences, use the Bradford Factor calculator.

Rate and rules last checked on 23 October 2026 against the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 on legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK's employer guide, for the 2026/27 tax year. This is general guidance, not legal advice; your payroll software or HMRC's guidance decides the final figure.