Statutory Sick Pay Changes April 2026: What Every UK Employer Must Update Now

The letter from Parliament landed on every employer's desk the same way most legislation does — quietly, while everyone was looking somewhere else. And now it's April 2026, and the rules have changed, and the payroll that was running correctly last month needs updating.

Three things changed at once. All of them on 6 April. All of them under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

From 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay is paid from day one of a qualifying sickness absence, the Lower Earnings Limit has been abolished, and the weekly rate has risen to £123.25. These are not minor adjustments. For any employer with part-time, zero-hours, or lower-paid staff, this is a material change to what absence costs.

The Waiting Days Are Gone

For as long as most payroll managers can remember, SSP operated with a three-day buffer. Days one, two, and three of a sickness absence — the waiting days — were unpaid. SSP only kicked in from day four.

The rationale was to deter short-term absence. The practical effect was that a worker with a stomach bug or a back spasm came in to work because staying home meant losing three days' pay. The human cost of that policy has been well-documented. Parliament decided to end it.

From 6 April 2026, there are no waiting days. The first qualifying day of sickness is paid. A single day off triggers SSP.

For employers, every qualifying absence now generates a payroll entry. The short ones that previously slipped through unrecorded — the Monday morning calls, the single-day flu — now require calculation and payment. If your absence tracking process relied on the three-day buffer as a natural filter, that filter is gone.

The Lower Earnings Limit Is Abolished

This is the bigger change for most hospitality, retail, care, and logistics employers.

The previous SSP qualification threshold required employees to earn at least £125 per week on average to qualify. Workers earning below that — part-timers doing two shifts, zero-hours staff called in irregularly, the casual workforce that makes these sectors function — got nothing when they were sick.

From 6 April 2026, all employees qualify regardless of earnings.

Approximately 1.3 million workers gain SSP access for the first time as a direct result of this change. If your business employs part-time or variable-hours staff who previously fell below the threshold, every one of them now qualifies. The question your payroll needs to answer for each new absence is not "do they earn enough to qualify?" It is "are they an employee, and have they been sick?"

The Rate — and the Complication for Lower Earners

The weekly SSP rate from 6 April 2026 is £123.25 — up £4.50 from the previous £118.75.

For most employees, that number applies directly. For employees who are newly eligible under the removed Lower Earnings Limit — those earning less than £129 per week — a different calculation applies.

Their SSP is the lower of:

• £123.25 per week, or
• 80% of their average weekly earnings

This matters. A worker averaging £90 per week receives SSP of £72 per week — not £123.25. Your payroll system needs to identify these workers and apply the 80% cap, not the flat rate.

If your payroll software hasn't been updated with the April 2026 changes, it will not handle this correctly. The calculation exists in the legislation. It does not exist automatically in software that hasn't been told about it.

Transitional Absences

Not everything switches over cleanly.

Absences that began before 6 April 2026 continue under the old rules until they end. That means the three waiting days still apply for the old absence period, the old qualification threshold still applies, and the old rate — £118.75 — is what you pay.

The new rules apply to absences that start on or after 6 April 2026.

Where a worker has a linked period of incapacity — an absence that connects to a previous absence within eight weeks — the rules applied depend on when the original absence started. This is the kind of detail that payroll software should handle automatically, but should also be verified manually for employees with complex absence histories.

What the Cost Actually Looks Like

The government's estimate is an average additional cost of £15 per employee per year. That number is a national average and it understates the impact in sectors with high proportions of part-time and variable-hours workers.

A hospitality employer with forty casual workers, each previously earning below the Lower Earnings Limit, absorbs the full SSP cost for every qualifying absence from every one of them going forward. A care provider with fifty part-time workers in the same position faces the same calculation. The £15 average is an aggregate. The actual number for your business depends on your workforce composition and your absence rate.

Model it before you find out the hard way what it costs.

What Your Payroll Needs to Do

First, confirm your payroll software has been updated for the April 2026 changes. SSP day one, Lower Earnings Limit removed, rate £123.25, 80% cap for lower earners. If you run payroll manually or through software that hasn't been updated, these changes are not happening automatically.

Second, update your absence policy documentation. Any reference to the three waiting days — in employee handbooks, contracts, manager guides — is now incorrect. Workers are entitled to SSP from day one, and telling them otherwise is a breach of their statutory rights.

Third, update your absence tracking. The three-day buffer that previously meant some absences weren't recorded now needs to capture single-day absences for SSP calculation purposes. If you don't track it, you can't pay it correctly.

bookd. manages SSP calculations as part of every payroll it runs, with rules updated for the April 2026 changes. If your current payroll setup involves manual SSP tracking or software that hasn't confirmed it's updated for the new rules, the gap between what you're paying and what you're legally required to pay is already running.