SSP Calculator: Statutory Sick Pay Rate

Qualifying days are the contracted working days in the employee's week. A five-day worker has a daily SSP rate of £24.65 at the full statutory amount; a three-day worker has a daily rate of £41.08; a six-day worker has a daily rate of £20.55. Where 80% of average weekly earnings is lower than £123.25, that lower figure is used across the week.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is the minimum amount UK employers must pay employees who are off work because of illness or injury. It is a statutory right set by HMRC and paid through the normal payroll, with income tax and employee National Insurance deducted in the usual way.

SSP is sometimes confused with company or occupational sick pay, with Statutory Maternity Pay, and with sick pay from DWP benefits such as new-style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The three are separate: SSP is paid by the employer, SMP is paid by the employer but partly recoverable from HMRC, and ESA is a state benefit paid by DWP. The calculator on this page is for SSP only.

What is the SSP rate in 2026/27? The SSP rate for 2026/27 is £123.25 a week. The rate is reviewed each tax year and is set out on GOV.UK in HMRC's "Rates and thresholds for employers" guidance. SSP is paid at the lower of £123.25 and 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings, so a low earner may receive less than the headline weekly rate.

The 2026/27 rate took effect from 6 April 2026. There are no transitional arrangements — the new weekly rate applies to any spell of sickness that starts on or after 6 April 2026, and the 2025/26 rate of £118.75 a week continues to apply only to spells that started before 6 April 2026. The page below shows the SSP rate at each common qualifying-day pattern, so you can see the SSP weekly rate, the SSP daily rate, and the resulting SSP amount in one place.

How does SSP work? SSP is paid through the normal payroll as earnings. The employer works out the daily rate for SSP by dividing the SSP weekly rate by the number of qualifying days in the employee's normal working week, multiplies that by the number of qualifying days the employee is off sick in the spell, and pays the result. Income tax, employee National Insurance and employer National Insurance all apply to SSP in the usual way.

The process is the same whether the employee is full-time, part-time, on a zero-hours contract, or an agency worker — the only things that change are the SSP daily rate (more days worked = lower daily rate) and the cap on the total number of SSP days (28 weeks' worth of qualifying days, so more days worked = more SSP days in cash terms).

The SSP weekly rate is the same for everyone, but the SSP daily rate depends on how many days a week the employee is contracted to work. A part-time worker on three days a week receives more per day than a full-time worker on five days, because the same total SSP amount is spread over fewer qualifying days. The chart below shows the statutory sick pay daily rate at each common qualifying-day pattern.

Where 80% of average weekly earnings is lower than £123.25, the lower figure is used across the week. A low earner on £120 a week AWE, for example, would receive £96 a week in SSP — or £19.20 per day on a five-day pattern.

The three figures most people want to know — the SSP weekly rate, the daily rate for SSP, and the SSP amount for a 28-week period.

• How much is SSP per week (the SSP weekly rate): £123.25 (or 80% of average weekly earnings if lower).
• How much is SSP per day (the SSP daily rate): weekly rate ÷ qualifying days per week. The full daily rate is £24.65 for a five-day employee, £41.08 for three days, £30.81 for four days, £61.63 for two days and £123.25 for a one-day worker.
• SSP amount over 28 weeks (full statutory period): £123.25 × 28 = £3,451.00, before any 80% AWE cap or qualifying-day adjustment.

These are the maximum statutory figures. A lower earner receiving 80% of AWE, or a part-time employee on fewer qualifying days, will receive less overall because the daily rate is lower — but they will also be paid for up to 28 weeks' worth of qualifying days, which can mean fewer days in cash terms for the same 28-week period.

A five-day employee earns £600 a week on average and is off sick for seven qualifying days in a row.

• Weekly SSP payable: lower of £123.25 or 80% of £600 = lower of £123.25 and £480 = £123.25.
• Daily SSP rate: £123.25 ÷ 5 = £24.65.
• Total SSP for 7 days: £24.65 × 7 = £172.55.

Now change the AWE to £100 a week. The 80% AWE figure is £80, which is lower than £123.25, so the weekly SSP becomes £80 and the daily rate becomes £80 ÷ 5 = £16.00. Total SSP for the same 7 days: £16.00 × 7 = £112.00.

The calculator does this arithmetic in one step: enter the days, the qualifying days per week, and the AWE, and it returns both the weekly rate and the total amount.

From 6 April 2026, SSP is payable from the first qualifying day of sickness. The previous three unpaid waiting days were removed by HMRC, so there is no longer a qualifying-period delay for new spells.

SSP can be paid for up to 28 weeks in any one period of incapacity for work. Linked spells — periods of sickness separated by eight weeks or less — are treated as a single period for SSP purposes, so a short return to work does not reset the 28-week clock. After SSP ends, employees who are still unfit may be able to claim Universal Credit or new-style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from DWP.

An employee qualifies for SSP if all of the following apply, as set out on GOV.UK.

• They are classed as an employee (not self-employed or a worker on a contract for services).
• They have been off sick for at least four consecutive days in a row, including non-working days. This is the period of incapacity for work, or PIW.
• They earn on average at least £129 a week — the Lower Earnings Limit used for Class 1 National Insurance in 2026/27.
• They tell their employer they are sick, in line with the employer's own absence-reporting rules.

Agency workers, casual staff and those on zero-hours contracts can all qualify, provided the eligibility rules above are met. Self-employed people cannot claim SSP, but may be able to claim new-style ESA.

Many employers pay occupational (company) sick pay on top of or instead of SSP. Occupational schemes almost always pay at least as much as SSP, and frequently more, but the rules vary widely — some have waiting days, some pay a percentage of salary, and some only kick in after a length-of-service threshold.

SSP is the legal floor: if an employee is eligible for SSP, the employer must pay at least that amount. Where company sick pay is more generous, the employer pays the higher amount and can use the SSP figure to recover part of the cost through a contractual sick pay scheme, where one exists. Where company sick pay is less generous — vanishingly rare — the employer must still top up to SSP.

SSP is paid through the normal payroll, so it is treated as earnings for the period it covers. Income tax and employee National Insurance are deducted in the usual way; employer National Insurance is also due on the SSP amount. SSP counts as pensionable pay for any scheme that uses qualifying earnings, and as earnings for the auto-enrolment trigger.

This is one of the reasons SSP is more expensive for the employer than it first appears: at 15% employer NI above the £5,000 secondary threshold, a £123.25 weekly SSP payment for 28 weeks (max £3,451) carries about £500 of employer NI on top.

No. Employers bear the full cost of SSP. There is no statutory recovery scheme, unlike Statutory Maternity Pay, where 92% (or 109% for small employers) can be reclaimed through PAYE.

This is one reason SSP is treated as a payroll cost rather than a recoverable statutory payment in management accounts. The small-employer Employment Allowance of £10,500 a year off the employer NI bill is the only regular offset, and it goes against the NI element rather than the SSP itself.

Five errors crop up repeatedly in payroll and HR.

• Treating SSP as a contractual benefit that can be withheld. It cannot — it is a statutory right for any qualifying employee.
• Applying a waiting day when none is due. From 6 April 2026 there are no unpaid waiting days for new spells.
• Splitting linked spells to extend the 28-week window. Spells separated by eight weeks or less are one PIW.
• Forgetting to count the four-day qualifying period. SSP only becomes payable once a PIW of four or more days has built up.
• Using the wrong figure for qualifying days. Use the contracted pattern, not the days the employee actually worked in the period.

Enter the days of sickness, the employee's qualifying days per week and their average weekly earnings, and the calculator does the rest. The result shows the SSP weekly rate and the total SSP amount for the spell.

For the 2026/27 tax year the headline SSP rate is £123.25 a week (or 80% of AWE if lower), payable from the first qualifying day of sickness for up to 28 weeks in any one period of incapacity for work. The result is an estimate based on HMRC's 2026/27 SSP rules, not a payroll guarantee. For day-to-day decisions about absence and pay the figures are reliable; for final payroll, always reconcile against the actual pay run and keep a record of the four-day PIW check.