Statutory Sick Pay

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is worked out by the pay run from the sickness you record on the employee. The rules are the ones in force since 6 April 2026: SSP is paid from the first day off sick (there are no waiting days), a single day off is enough, and there is no lower earnings limit.

Recording sickness

1. Open the employee and go to the Payroll tab
2. Under Sickness (Statutory Sick Pay), click Sickness
3. Enter the First day off sick, and the Last day off sick when they are back (leave it empty while they are still off)
4. Tick the Days the employee normally works: SSP is paid for these days only (the qualifying days), and they are saved on the employee
5. Leave Average weekly earnings empty to have it worked out from the pay runs of the 8 weeks before the sickness, or enter it yourself. With no pay run before the sickness it is the annual salary divided by 52; with no salary either, you are asked for it
6. Tick Paid normal pay while off (company sick pay covers SSP) if you kept paying them in full: nothing is then added to their pay, but the days still count towards the 28 weeks

What the pay run pays

• The weekly rate is the lower of £123.25 (2026-27) and 80% of the average weekly earnings
• A day's SSP is the weekly rate divided by the number of qualifying days in a week, and each payment is rounded up to the penny
• Each pay run pays the qualifying days of sickness that fall inside its period, as Statutory Sick Pay on the payslip. It is part of gross pay: taxed, subject to National Insurance and student loan, and counted for pension
• Periods off sick no more than 8 weeks apart are linked, and a linked series pays 28 weeks at most
• SSP stops at the employee's leaving date

SSP is added to the normal pay of the period. If the employee is not paid their salary while off sick, reduce their pay for the period on the pay run with Edit (for example a pre-tax deduction for the unpaid days). SSP cannot be reclaimed from HMRC, so nothing goes on the EPS.

Not covered

• Sickness that began before 6 April 2026 and continued after it (the transitional rules)
• The three-year limit on a linked series of sickness
• The end of entitlement when the employee claims Employment and Support Allowance, and the SSP1 form, which you send yourself