Statutory Sick Pay From Day One: How to Check You're Being Paid Correctly

If you've been off sick this year, your Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) may now work very differently to how it did in 2025 — and it's worth checking your payslip to make sure your employer has actually updated their payroll.

What changed, and when

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which passed into law on 18 December 2025, two major changes to SSP took effect from 6 April 2026, according to Acas and Bird & Bird's employment law briefing:

• No more waiting days. Previously, SSP wasn't payable for the first three "waiting days" of a sickness absence. That's now abolished — SSP is payable from day one of any qualifying sickness absence.
• No more earnings threshold. The old lower earnings limit, which excluded the lowest-paid employees from SSP entirely, has been removed. SSP is now available to all employees, regardless of how much they earn.

Together, these two changes mean far more sick days are now paid, and far more low-earning and part-time workers are eligible at all — a significant shift for anyone who previously fell through the gap.

Why your payslip might still be wrong

Not every payroll system updated on time, and some smaller employers may not yet have adjusted their processes to reflect both changes. If your latest sick pay doesn't reflect day-one payment, or you've been told you don't qualify because of low earnings, it's worth raising it directly — it may simply be an oversight rather than a deliberate decision.

Checklist: is your sick pay correct?

• Check the date your absence started, then confirm SSP appears on your payslip from that first day, not from day four onward.
• Confirm you weren't turned down for SSP on earnings grounds — this exclusion no longer applies to anyone as of 6 April 2026.
• Look up the current SSP weekly rate on gov.uk's Statutory Sick Pay page and check it matches what's on your payslip, pro-rated correctly for your working pattern.
• Ask HR or payroll directly if something looks off — quote the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes by name if needed.
• Escalate to the new Fair Work Agency if your employer won't correct a genuine error — see our companion guide on how to raise a complaint.
• Keep copies of your payslips and any sick notes in case you need evidence later.

What this doesn't change

SSP is still a minimum floor, not full pay — many employers offer more generous contractual sick pay schemes on top, and those terms haven't changed. It's also still capped at 28 weeks per period of incapacity, and the day-one change doesn't extend that overall limit.

International comparison

The UK's day-one SSP reform brings it closer into line with several EU states, where statutory sick pay from the first day of absence is already the norm — Germany, for instance, requires employers to pay full salary for the first six weeks of sickness. The US has no federal statutory sick pay scheme at all; paid sick leave depends entirely on state law or employer policy. Australia guarantees 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave a year for most employees under the National Employment Standards, a different model based on an annual entitlement rather than day-one wage replacement.

Key Numbers

• 6 April 2026 — date the day-one SSP rule took effect
• 3 days — the waiting period that has now been abolished
• 28 weeks — maximum SSP entitlement per period of incapacity (unchanged)
• £0 — the earnings threshold for eligibility, now removed entirely

Sources

• Acas — Employment Rights Act 2025
• Bird & Bird — What's new from April 2026
• gov.uk — Statutory Sick Pay

Educational content only — not financial advice.