What is statutory sick pay and how is it calculated?
Answered 17 March 2026
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): What It Is and How It Is Calculated
What the law says
Statutory basis SSP is provided under section 151 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA 1992) (section 147 in Northern Ireland). An employee who satisfies all of the qualifying conditions set out in the Act is entitled to SSP from their employer.
HMRC guidance / practice
Qualifying Conditions
To be entitled to SSP, an employee must satisfy all of the following conditions:
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Incapacity: They must be unfit for work under their contract of employment due to physical or mental incapacity, or have been advised to refrain from work for precautionary or convalescent reasons, or be a carrier of/in contact with an infectious or contagious disease and issued with a statement from the appropriate medical officer advising them not to work.
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Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW): The employee must have been incapable of work for at least four consecutive calendar days — this is called a Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW). If two PIWs are separated by a gap of eight weeks (56 days) or less, they "link" and are treated as one PIW (SSCBA 1992, s.152).
The PIW includes all days of incapacity, including non-working days such as weekends, rest days, and holidays.
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Period of entitlement: The days of SSP must fall within a period of entitlement starting on the first day of incapacity (SSCBA 1992, s.153).
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Average Weekly Earnings (AWE): The employee must have AWE of not less than the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) for NICs purposes, calculated over the eight weeks prior to becoming sick (SSCBA 1992, s.153 and Sch.11). Note: from 6 April 2026, entitlement to SSP will no longer be dependent on earnings being at or above the LEL.
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Qualifying Days (QDs): The days of SSP must be qualifying days — days on which the employee is required to work under their contract. There must also be a contract of service (employment) in place, and the employee must have done some work under that contract (SSCBA 1992, s.154).
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Notification: The employee must notify their employer of their sickness within the employer's required time limits. An employer can withhold SSP if notification is given late without good reason (SSCBA 1992, s.156).
How SSP is Calculated
Waiting Days The first three Qualifying Days in a PIW are "waiting days" — SSP is not payable for these days (SSCBA 1992, s.155(1)). Where PIWs are linked and all three waiting days were served in the first PIW, there are no waiting days in any later linked spell.
Weekly Rate SSP is paid at a flat weekly rate (currently £116.75 per week for 2024/25 — note the sources reference £96.35 as a prior rate). For periods of less than a full week, the daily rate is calculated as a fraction of the weekly rate based on the number of qualifying days in the week.
Example from HMRC guidance: An employee sick from 6 July 2021 to 14 July 2021 (qualifying days Monday–Friday) was entitled to SSP for four qualifying days (9, 12, 13, 14 July — the first three QDs being waiting days). This equalled 4/5ths of the weekly rate of £96.35 = £77.08.
Maximum Duration SSP is payable for a maximum of 28 weeks. SSP withheld due to late notification does not count towards this 28-week maximum (SSCBA 1992, s.156).
Who pays? SSP is paid by the employer (not the government directly). Employers may in certain circumstances recover SSP paid from HMRC, and details of SSP paid are reported via the Full Payment Submission (FPS) and Employer Payment Summary (EPS) under PAYE.
Zero-hours workers Workers on zero-hours contracts may also be entitled to SSP if they have done regular work and meet all other eligibility criteria.
Citation sources
The qualifying conditions are laid down in sections 151 to 156 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act (SSCBA) 1992 and sections 147 to 152 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act (SSCB (NI)A) 1992 and Schedule 11 of SSCBA 1992 and SSCB(NI)A 1992. Under section 151/147 (in NI) an employee who satisfies all of the conditions set out in the Act is entitled to SSP from their employer. Those conditions are that: they must be unfit for work under their
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