Home / Day one rights: Statutory Sick Pay
30th January 2026
Jake McManus, Solicitor
The Employment Rights Act represents one of the most significant overhauls of employment law in recent years, transforming the rights of employees. While much of the attention has focused on some of the headline changes such as increased unfair dismissal protection and the removal of the compensatory cap, there are other, less attention-grabbing changes that are about to come into effect this year. One of the first of these changes is the day-one entitlement to statutory sick pay (SSP).
The Act will remove the current 3-day waiting period for entitlement to SSP, meaning that SSP will be payable from day one of absence. It is currently only payable on the fourth day of absence.
The Act also removes the requirement to earn at least the lower earnings limit (currently £125 per week) to be entitled to SSP. Instead, the weekly rate of SSP will be the lower of:
This means that SSP rates will effectively be tapered for the lowest earners.
The changes to statutory sick pay have attracted far less attention than some of the other reforms set to be introduced by the Act. However, employers may not have considered the additional costs of sick pay when calculating budgets for 2026. Whilst having to pay SSP for an extra day or two will not, in isolation, be a significant cost for most businesses, it will quickly add up when applying this across the entire workforce. There is also a possibility that sickness absence rates will increase as a result of this change, as employees who previously could not afford to be sick now take the time off when needed.
The government hopes that the removal of the waiting days will assist in phased returns to work because employees will be entitled to SSP for every day of work missed. For example, if someone who normally works five days a week returns from sick leave on an initial three-day week, they will be entitled to SSP for the other two days. Whether this proves to be useful when managing phased returns remains to be seen.
It is important that businesses take note of the changes to SSP and prepare now ahead of the change in April. We can assist your business with its preparation and provide strategic advice as to how to best prepare for the incoming legal changes. Please contact Jake McManus on 0161 832 3434.