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UK Payroll Glossary

Statutory Sick Pay(SSP)

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is the minimum amount UK employers must pay eligible employees who are unable to work because of illness or injury. To qualify, a worker must be sick for at least four consecutive days (including non-working days), earn at or above the National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit, and be classed as an employee rather than a self-employed contractor. The first three days of sickness are unpaid waiting days; SSP starts on the fourth day and can run for up to 28 weeks in any one period of incapacity. Many employers supplement SSP with contractual sick pay.

Last updated May 2026

Eligibility and waiting days

A worker qualifies for SSP if all of the following apply:

  • At least 4 consecutive days sick — the absence must form a period of incapacity for work (PIW): four or more consecutive days during which the employee is unable to work due to illness or injury. The four days include weekends, bank holidays, and any non-working days — not just the days the employee was scheduled to work. Two separate absences of four or more days each are treated as a single linked PIW if there are eight weeks or fewer between them.
  • Earnings above the [National Insurance](/glossary/national-insurance) Lower Earnings Limit — for 2026/27, this is £125 per week. Workers earning below the LEL are not making NI contributions and do not qualify for SSP. Self-employed workers and those on certain zero-hours arrangements where HMRC deems them self-employed also fall outside the SSP rules.
  • SSP starts on day 4, not day 1. The first three consecutive days of any PIW are waiting days — no SSP is payable for them. This means a worker sick from Monday to Thursday (four days) receives SSP only for Thursday. An employee who is regularly sick in short bursts may rarely receive any SSP if each absence ends before day four.

How much and for how long

SSP is paid at a fixed weekly rate set by HMRC each April. Check gov.uk for the current 2026/27 statutory weekly rate — it changes annually and fabricating a specific figure here would mislead. For a worker on reduced hours, the weekly rate is paid in proportion to the days they were due to work in the period.

SSP can be paid for up to 28 weeks in a single PIW or a chain of linked PIWs. Once 28 weeks are exhausted, the employer's liability ends. An employee who remains too unwell to return to work after 28 weeks of SSP may be able to claim New Style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from the DWP instead.

SSP is subject to PAYE Income Tax and National Insurance in the normal way. It is paid through the employer's regular payroll run on the employee's usual payday and appears as a line item on the payslip. Unlike SMP, employers cannot currently recover SSP from HMRC — the full cost sits with the employer (the scheme that allowed recovery was abolished in 2014 for most employers).

Many employers pay more

SSP is the statutory floor, not a ceiling. Many employers operate their own contractual sick pay (sometimes called company sick pay or enhanced sick pay) that tops SSP up to full pay — or part pay — for an initial period. Common arrangements are:

  • Full pay for the first one to four weeks of absence, then SSP.
  • Half pay for a defined period, with SSP as the minimum throughout.
  • A 12-month rolling entitlement that resets if the employee is well for a defined period.

Contractual sick pay runs alongside SSP, not instead of it — whatever an employer pays, it must be at least the SSP amount. If the employer's sick pay scheme pays £X per week and £X is more than the SSP rate, there is no separate SSP payment — the contractual amount already satisfies the obligation. If £X is less than SSP, the employer must top up to SSP.

The employment contract or staff handbook is the definitive source of what applies to a particular worker. The SSP rules set the baseline that the contract can only improve, never reduce.

In Ghugi terms: SSP appears on the payslip as a line item in the earnings section, often alongside any contractual sick pay paid on top. Ghugi delivers the PDF your payroll software produced to the right employee — it doesn't assess SSP eligibility or calculate the amounts.

Related terms

Statutory Maternity PaySMP is the minimum pay a UK employer must give an eligible employee on maternity leave, for up to 39 weeks.Gross payGross pay is the total an employee earns before any deductions — salary or hourly pay, plus overtime, bonuses, commission,…Worker (vs Employee)In UK employment law, "worker" is a broader category than "employee".PAYEPAYE is HMRC's system for collecting Income Tax and National Insurance directly from employees' wages before the money reaches…PayslipA payslip is the document showing what an employee was paid for a specific period — usually a week or a month.

Authoritative source

gov.uk: Statutory Sick Pay →

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Disclaimer: This glossary is for general guidance. Specific UK tax thresholds and statutory rates are checked at publication and re-reviewed every April; always verify against the official gov.uk pages for the current tax year. Ghugi is not a payroll provider and does not give tax or legal advice. For your situation, ask your accountant or HMRC directly.