If one of your employees calls in sick on a Monday morning, you now owe them sick pay for that very day. Not from Thursday. Not after three unpaid waiting days. From day one.
That single change, in force from 6 April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025, rewires how every UK employer handles short absences — and an Acas poll found 43 per cent of employers rank day-one sick pay as the most impactful workplace change of the lot. If your payroll process, absence policy, or absence spreadsheet still assumes the old three-waiting-day rule, every one-day absence since April has been underpaid.
Here is what changed, what it costs, and the payroll checklist that keeps you compliant.
What Actually Changed on 6 April 2026
Three things happened at once. All three took effect on 6 April 2026, and all three flow from the Employment Rights Act 2025, which became law on 18 December 2025.
1. No more waiting days — SSP starts on day one
Previously, the first three qualifying days of sickness were unpaid waiting days, and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) only started on the fourth day. In practice, that meant a two-day flu cost the employee two days' wages and cost you nothing in SSP.
Now SSP is payable from the first full day of sickness absence. A one-day absence now triggers one day of SSP. This also helps phased returns: if someone who normally works five days returns on three days a week while recovering, they are entitled to SSP for each day not worked because of sickness.
2. No more lower earnings limit
Previously, only employees earning at least £125 a week qualified for SSP. Around 1.3 million low-paid workers — many working part-time, in hospitality, retail, care, or for more than one employer — got nothing at all when they were sick.
From 6 April 2026, every employee qualifies regardless of earnings. If you employ casual, part-time, or term-time staff below the old threshold, they are newly in scope, and your SSP bill now includes people it never covered before.
3. A new two-tier rate: £123.25 or 80 per cent of pay, whichever is lower
The flat weekly rate rose to £123.25. But low earners do not get the full flat rate: SSP is now paid at 80 per cent of average weekly earnings where that figure is lower than the flat rate. In other words, the lowest-paid staff get meaningful cover without being paid more to be sick than to work.
SSP remains payable for up to 28 weeks, and you can still top it up through a company (contractual or occupational) sick pay scheme — you just cannot pay less than the statutory minimum.
What Stayed the Same
Day-one SSP did not rewrite the whole system. The parts below still apply, and they are where most small-employer mistakes happen:
- The employee must be off sick for at least one full working day. Partial-day absences do not trigger SSP.
- You only pay SSP for days the employee normally works (qualifying days). If someone works Tuesday to Thursday, a Monday illness is not an SSP day.
- Self-certification still covers the first 7 days. Employees can self-certify using form SC2 or your own process; a fit note from a doctor is only required after 7 days off.
- You fund SSP yourself. There is no mechanism to reclaim SSP costs from HMRC. Every extra day-one payment lands on your payroll budget.
- You must keep records. HMRC's SSP record sheet (form SSP2) has been updated for the removal of waiting days. Record absence dates, payment dates and amounts, and any unpaid SSP with reasons.
What This Costs a Small Employer
Be honest about the arithmetic, because the cost shock is concentrated exactly where small businesses feel it: short, frequent absences that used to cost nothing.
Under the old rules, a business with 15 employees averaging two one-to-two-day absences a year paid roughly zero in SSP for those episodes. Under day-one SSP, each of those absences now costs a day or two at the daily SSP rate (the weekly rate divided by the employee's qualifying days). For a full-timer on the flat rate, that is around £24–£25 per SSP day — small per incident, but multiplied across a team and a winter flu season, it becomes a visible budget line for the first time.
Three cost drivers deserve their own estimates:
- Newly eligible low earners. Anyone below the old £125-a-week threshold is a brand-new SSP liability. Count them now.
- Single-day absences. These went from free to paid overnight. If your absence data shows lots of one-day events, budget accordingly.
- Administrative time. More SSP days means more calculations, more SSP2 entries, and more payroll adjustments — particularly if you run payroll manually or on a basic plan.
None of this is a reason to panic. It is a reason to budget: pull your last 12 months of absence records, reprice them under day-one rules, and add a 10–15 per cent contingency for the winter quarter.
The Payroll Compliance Checklist
Work through these seven items before your next pay run.
1. Update your payroll software and SSP calculator
HMRC updated its manual SSP calculation guidance for the 6 April 2026 rules. If your payroll software has not been updated — or if you calculate SSP in a spreadsheet — verify that waiting days are gone and the 80-per-cent-of-earnings rule is applied for low earners. Run one test calculation against HMRC's worked examples before trusting it on live data.
2. Rewrite your sickness absence policy
Any policy document, handbook paragraph, or offer letter that mentions three waiting days or a £125 earnings threshold is now wrong and potentially misleading. Update them to state: SSP from the first full day of absence, no minimum earnings, self-certification for the first 7 days, fit note thereafter, and the notification deadline you expect (you can still set your own reasonable reporting rules).
3. Brief your line managers
Managers are the front line of SSP compliance. They need to know that sending someone home sick on day one now starts the SSP clock, that part-time and low-paid staff are covered, and that return-to-work interviews should be supportive rather than sceptical — penalising staff for using a statutory entitlement is a fast route to a tribunal claim.
4. Fix your absence recording
Day-one SSP makes accurate day-one recording essential. A late-logged Monday absence is no longer a rounding error; it is an underpayment. Move absence logging to same-day entry, record which days are the employee's normal working days, and keep the SSP2 record sheet current — it is your evidence if HMRC or an employee queries a payment.
5. Review your company sick pay scheme
If you offer occupational sick pay above the statutory minimum, decide how it interacts with the new floor. Most schemes already exceed SSP, so little changes — but check waiting-day clauses in your scheme rules, because a contractual three-day wait sitting on top of day-one SSP creates confusion and grievances. This is also a good moment to cost whether enhancing company sick pay would reduce presenteeism, which the removal of waiting days was partly designed to address.
6. Plan for the wider Employment Rights Act timetable
Day-one SSP arrived alongside day-one paternity leave and day-one unpaid parental leave (also from 6 April 2026). Further changes land through 2026 and 2027, and several are still under government consultation. Assign one person to track Acas and GOV.UK updates quarterly so the next commencement date does not catch you the way this one may have.
7. Watch for absence-pattern changes — lawfully
Some employers fear day-one SSP will increase short absences. The evidence-based response is better data, not suspicion: track absence rates by team and season, conduct consistent return-to-work interviews, and address genuine patterns through your capability or disciplinary process with proper evidence. Never reduce hours, withhold SSP, or treat staff less favourably for claiming sick pay they are legally owed.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Still applying waiting days. The single most common error. Any calculation that skips the first three days is now an underpayment.
- Excluding low earners. If your payroll still filters SSP by the £125 threshold, fix it — those staff have been entitled since April.
- Paying SSP for non-working days. Day-one does not mean every calendar day counts. Only qualifying (normally worked) days attract SSP.
- Forgetting the 80 per cent rule. Low earners get 80 per cent of average weekly earnings where that is lower than £123.25 — not the flat rate, and not zero.
- No records. Without SSP2-style records of dates, amounts, and reasons for unpaid SSP, you cannot defend a dispute.
Keep Your Payroll Records Organised from Day One
Day-one SSP is a small illustration of a bigger truth: employment costs increasingly turn on day-level records — who worked which days, who was absent when, and what was paid for each day. Whether you run a UK team or employ staff across borders, keeping clean, auditable payroll and absence records is what turns a rule change like this from a scramble into a spreadsheet update. Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data — no black boxes, no vendor lock-in. Get started for free and see why developers and finance professionals are switching to plain-text accounting.