How to calculate statutory sick pay (SSP)?

Statutory Sick Pay, abbreviated to SSP, is the statutory minimum payment and legal requirement for UK employers to pay eligible employees who are unable to work due to illness. SSP is payable for the first full day of sickness absence — the three unpaid ‘waiting days’ requirement having been abolished by the Employment Rights Act.

Exactly how much an employee is entitled to depends on a number of factors, including their type of employment, their average salary and work hours, and contractual agreements such as notification policies. A sick day is also only counted if the employee is off for the full day. So if an employee comes in and works for 30 minutes before going off sick, that day cannot be counted towards their SSP.

Employers are only responsible for paying SSP if they pay Class 1 National Insurance contributions for the employee. Understanding SSP is helpful for both employers and employees and knowing exactly what the law stipulates can save you a lot of trouble and additional headaches.

Calculating SSP is simple and is usually worked out at a daily rate. Employers should divide the weekly ssp rate by the number of qualifying days that fall on the employee’s usual working days and pay employees accordingly. SSP is paid in the same way as normal pay checks along with other company salaries. It is taxable and subject to National Insurance deductions as applicable. For the purposes of SSP, the first day of the week is Sunday.

Sick pay policy and individual contractual agreements will inform a lot of sick pay calculations, for instance, if an employee’s contract stipulates that they are entitled to more than government mandated sick pay, then the employer will need to honour that agreement. However, UK employers who are responsible for paying SSP must still meet the statutory minimum as a legal requirement. They must pay eligible employees at least the minimum amount employers are required to provide by law and ensure SSP is paid correctly.

For the purposes of calculations in this article, we will only be considering government SSP. Be sure to check your own contract though as sick pay agreements can differ vastly.

You can use the Statutory Sick Pay Calculator provided on the gov.uk website to easily work out how much SSP you or your employee are entitled to.

What are the requirements for SSP?

For the employer:

• You must be paying Class 1 National Insurance contributions for your employee, unless it is not required because of their age or level of earnings

 

For the employee: These are the main SSP eligibility rules and eligibility criteria.

• You must have been sick for four or more continuous days, including non-working days
• You must have informed your employee of your illness within the company’s required time frame, or within 7 days if there is not one in place
• You must provide a fit note from a doctor if the illness keeps you from work for more than seven days.
• There is no longer a minimum earning amount in order to be eligible for SSP. A lower earning limit threshold was abolished from 6th April 2026, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, meaning that all employees qualify for SSP regardless of earnings.
• You must be employed at the place you are requesting SSP from. If you are self-employed, you are not eligible for statutory sick pay from the person you work for and may need to claim benefits instead
• You must have already completed some work for the employer
• You cannot claim SSP if you have already received 28 weeks of SSP
• You cannot claim SSP if you are receiving maternity, paternity, or adoption pay
• If you are off for more than 7 days in a row then you must provide a fit note from your doctor or Allied Health Professional (with the approval of your employer)

 

If you do not qualify, you may need to seek financial support through employment and support allowance or other benefits to help with living costs.

How much SSP do you get per day?

How much SSP you are entitled to per day depends on your contract and the number of days you usually work.

If you are only entitled to SSP and your contract does not stipulate that you will receive anything more, then the weekly statutory sick pay is the flat rate of £123.25 in this example. To calculate SSP, your daily amount is worked out from the weekly SSP rate, so if you worked a regular week of 5 days on, 2 days off, then your daily SSP rate would be £24.65 (£123.25 divided by five usual working days). However, if your regular week was 3 days on, 4 days off, then your daily SSP rate would be £41.08 (£123.25 divided by three qualifying days). For low earners, SSP entitlement will be the lower of £123.25 or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, so employees earning below £123.25 receive 80% of average earnings.

Your SSP will be calculated based on the number of qualifying days of missed work, so you won’t receive anything for the first three days of missed work. If you are off for 5 full days (including non-working days), then you will be entitled to 2 days of SSP.

How much is SSP weekly?

If you have missed enough work to have full weeks of work owed to you then your employer will pay the weekly SSP instead of calculating the daily SSP.

For the current tax year (2026/27) example, weekly SSP is £123.25.

Whether you are earning SSP for a few days or for weeks, your employee’s statutory sick pay will be paid through payroll like normal wages, and tax and National Insurance deductions still apply.

Do part time workers get full SSP?

Part time workers can receive statutory sick pay if they meet the SSP eligibility criteria. With the lower earnings limit removed in April 2026, they will be entitled to full SSP. SSP is not calculated pro-rata and is based on average weekly earnings regardless of how many hours you work, as the statutory minimum is not reduced for part-time hours.

Do fixed term contract workers get SSP?

Anyone on a fixed term contract should be able to claim SSP if they meet the same employment requirements as other employees, as the same sickness absence rules apply. This is specific to individuals on a fixed term contract with set hours, as fixed term and zero hours contracts work slightly differently.

Casual staff, agency workers, and temps are all entitled to SSP provided they make an average of £120 per week. Employers must pay eligible employees on fixed-term, agency, and casual contracts if they meet the eligibility criteria. The amount they are due does not change based on the type of contract, so daily and weekly SSP are still calculated in the same way as they are for full time, permanent employees.

Some contracts may include extra company rules during probation, but these do not override statutory entitlement. Check your contract or sick pay policy for the details of any enhanced scheme and what you may be entitled to if you get sick.

Do you get sick pay on zero hours?

Zero hour contract workers are still entitled to SSP provided they meet the requirements above, but SSP calculations for a zero hours contract and other irregular work patterns can involve some extra rules and stipulations.

Because zero hour contracts don’t offer regular work, employers will need to calculate average weekly earnings based on a “relevant period”. To do this, they need to find the starting date for the relevant period by working backwards from the most recent pay day and selecting a date no less than 8 weeks before that date. The starting date must allow for the relevant period to have at least one full pay period – this may be weekly, monthly, or termly depending how often the employee is paid.

For example, if an employee falls sick on 21 January 2017, the resulting sickness period means the relevant period would be calculated as follows:

 

Frequency of pay	Last payday before first full day of sickness	Relevant period start date	Relevant period	Calculation for average weekly earnings (AWE)
Weekly (Paid Every Friday)	13 January 2026	18 November 2025	19 November 2025 – 13 January 2026	Total earnings in the relevant period divided by 8 weeks
Monthly (Paid the last day of each month)	31 December 2025	31 October 2025	1 November 2025 to 31 December 2025	Total earnings in the relevant period divided by the number of months in the period, multiplied by 12 (months in the year) and divided by 52 (weeks in the year)

Once the employer has calculated the average weekly earnings from the employee’s earnings, they can determine whether the worker meets the threshold and what their SSP entitlement will be.

If you have not yet worked a full 8 weeks on a zero hour contract there are still ways that average weekly earnings can be calculated. If there is an exact number of weeks, then the total earnings of the employee can be divided by the number of weeks worked to find their average weekly earnings. If they have worked an incomplete number of weeks, then their total earnings can be divided by the number of days worked and then multiplied by 7 (days in the week).

The only time the employer does not need to do these calculations is if the employee is in a probation phase, has already received maximum SSP (over a period of 28 weeks), or if they have already received notice that the contract has come to an end.

How much you are entitled to per day is also sometimes tricky and some employers have tried to remove scheduled shifts to avoid paying SSP to zero hour workers. However, usual working days in the relevant period must be taken into consideration and can be calculated easily with average weekly earnings. SSP is only paid for qualifying days the worker was scheduled to work. Even if an employee is only employed 2 days a week on average, if they meet the minimum threshold and have missed work due to illness, then they are entitled to SSP. In complex cases, payroll software or an SSP calculator can help make sure staff are paid correctly.

How long do you get full pay when off sick?

The maximum SSP you can get is 28 weeks in a period, or within linked periods. Each sickness period is the continuous time that you are incapable of doing work. Linked periods are periods of sick leave where a previous period within 8 weeks can link so they count as one period for SSP purposes. Sickness periods separated by 56 days are linked, and the 28-week SSP limit resets after 56 days without sickness. This helps to protect employees from losing out on SSP because they may not have worked as many hours in the time in between to still qualify for SSP. For this purpose, the relevant period for calculating average weekly earnings is the relevant period used for the first period of sick leave and a second relevant period is not calculated.

SSP can also stop if you start receiving statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance (this also extends to paternity and adoption pay).

Generally, you will stop getting SSP as soon as you return to work, however, bank holidays do not pause SSP during a linked sickness period, and SSP can also stop if you have multiple linked periods separated by less than eight weeks that have lasted for longer than three years. If this is the case, then your employer must give you an SSP1 form explaining why your SSP is stopping. The SSP1 form is also what you may need to claim benefits, seek advice about other benefits, and check holiday entitlement or holiday pay if your absence is prolonged.

If you have had three years of SSP caused by the same condition then you may be able to get work benefits through Universal Credit.

Can Self-employed workers claim SSP?

Unfortunately, self employed individuals are not able to claim SSP even if they are paying National Insurance contributions. Self-employed people cannot receive statutory sick pay because SSP is only for employees. From April 2026, workers who are eligible for statutory sick pay will receive it from the first day of sickness, but this change does not apply if you work for yourself. If you are self-employed and unable to work, you may need to claim benefits instead, such as employment and support allowance, support allowance through ESA, or Universal Credit, as financial support.

Even if you have been self-employed, if you find yourself unable to work due to disability or a chronic condition, then you may be entitled to certain benefits through Universal Credit. These can help with living costs during sickness absence. You should be aware, however, that if you start receiving benefits because you are no longer able to work, your income may decrease significantly.