Situation before reforms under the Employment Rights Act 2025
SSP was paid from the fourth day of sickness absence at a flat weekly rate.
To qualify, employees needed to be earning more than the Lower Earnings Limit.
So what’s changing and when?
From 6 April 2026, the Employment Rights Act requires employers to pay SSP from the first full day of sickness absence, removing the three-day waiting period.
It has also removed the Lower Earnings Limit, and all eligible employees must be paid either the SSP flat rate or 80% of their weekly earnings – whichever is lower.
These changes increase the number of employees who are eligible for SSP and bring forward the point at which payments must begin.
What you need to do
- Review your policies to reflect employees’ entitlement to SSP from day one of their absence.
- Work with payroll to adjust the mechanics of payment, and calculate any extra costs for your organisation.
- Review your attendance management procedures including the trigger thresholds where managers intervene in cases of repeated absence. If you do not pay company sick pay, paying SSP from day one could result in more short-term absences, so you may need to spend more time managing employees’ attendance. This means that you need your policies and procedures to be robust and support your business’s aims.
- Review your sick pay provision for phased returns to work, since SSP will now generally be payable for any non-working days.
- Make sure your managers are well-equipped and confident to apply your attendance management procedures, including conducting return-to-work interviews. Give managers thorough training where needed.
How we can help
Changes to SSP increase eligibility and potentially increase costs.
Our HR and legal experts can help you put the right controls in place, so day-one SSP does not create unintended absence or cost issues. We can support you with:
- Attendance policy and procedure review: Reviewing and updating sickness absence and attendance policies so they reflect day-one SSP and any changes to your approach to phased returns to work.
- Trigger points and absence management: Helping you review trigger thresholds, return-to-work processes and escalation points to manage repeated short-term absence.
- Manager training and confidence: Supporting managers to handle absence conversations, conduct return-to-work interviews and apply procedures consistently, strengthened through targeted training like our Managing Absence course.
- Aligning HR and payroll processes: Helping HR and payroll teams work together so SSP changes are applied accurately and understood across the organisation.
- Cost and impact assessment: Supporting you to understand where additional cost is likely to arise and how attendance management can reduce it.
- Embedding changes into day-to-day practice: Moving beyond policy updates to ensure procedures are applied consistently in practice and proactive action is taken to reduce absence levels.
Additional support and resources
Stay informed and prepared by signing up to our email updates, where we’ll share confirmed changes and key dates as they come into force. Members can access up-to-date guidance, template policies and letters in our HR & Legal Resources section, and our expert team is on hand to answer questions or provide practical support, whether or not you are a Make UK member. You can also contact our ERA enquiry line.
To see the planned changes at a glance, download our free Employment Rights Act planner for clear timelines and practical next steps. If you’d like a deeper insight, ask about our Audit and Impact Assessment - a structured review to help you understand your levels of risk, prioritise actions and plan with confidence.