What Is Statutory Sick Pay and Who Gets It?

Statutory Sick Pay is the legal minimum an employer must pay when you cannot work because of illness. It is a floor, not a normal outcome, and a great many employees are entitled to considerably more through their contract without realising it.

Who qualifies

Four conditions, all of which must be met:

1. You are classed as an employee and have done some work for the employer.
2. You have been off sick for at least four consecutive days, including non-working days and weekends. This is called a period of incapacity for work.
3. You earn at least the lower earnings limit for National Insurance, averaged over the relevant period.
4. You have told your employer within their time limit, or within seven days if they have not set one.

Agency workers, zero-hours workers and those on short-term contracts can all qualify if they meet these conditions. Self-employed people cannot.

What it pays

A fixed weekly amount set by government and reviewed each April. It is a flat rate, not a percentage of earnings, which has two consequences worth understanding.

For someone on an average or above-average salary, SSP replaces a small fraction of normal income. For someone working part-time on modest hours, it can approach or occasionally exceed usual weekly pay, because the rate is the same regardless of how much you normally earn.

SSP is paid through payroll in the same way as wages, with tax and National Insurance deducted as usual.

Waiting days

SSP is not payable for the first three qualifying days of any period of sickness. These are the waiting days, and they are the detail most people are unaware of until they need it.

Payment starts on the fourth qualifying day. A qualifying day is one you would normally have worked, so for someone working Monday to Friday who falls ill on a Friday, the waiting days run across the weekend only if those are normal working days, which for most people they are not.

If you have two periods of sickness within eight weeks of each other, they are linked, and you do not serve the waiting days again for the second period. That rule exists to protect people with fluctuating conditions.

How long it lasts

Up to 28 weeks for any one period of sickness, or any series of linked periods. After that, SSP stops and the question becomes whether you qualify for other support, which for most people means Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit.

Your employer should give you a form confirming when SSP ends so you can claim elsewhere without a gap.

Self-certification and fit notes

For the first seven calendar days you can self-certify. Most employers have a short form; some accept an email. No medical evidence is required and your employer cannot insist on it for that period.

From day eight, your employer can require a fit note. These are issued by GPs and, since the rules were widened, also by nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, which has made them considerably easier to obtain.

A fit note may say you are not fit for work, or that you may be fit for work with adjustments such as reduced hours, different duties or a phased return. The second option is often the more useful one and is worth discussing rather than dismissing.

Contractual sick pay

This is the part that matters most, and it is entirely separate from the statutory scheme.

Many employers operate an occupational sick pay scheme offering full pay for a defined period, often followed by half pay. A typical arrangement might be full pay for the first month, rising with length of service to several months. Public sector schemes are frequently more generous still.

Where contractual sick pay exists, it usually includes SSP rather than sitting on top of it: you receive the contractual amount, part of which is the employer reclaiming the statutory element.

Check three places: your contract, the staff handbook, and any collective agreement. Entitlement often increases with service, so the figure that applied in your first year may not be the figure that applies now.

What your employer can and cannot do

They can set a reasonable notification procedure and require you to follow it. They can ask for a fit note after seven days. They can hold return-to-work discussions and, for repeated or long absence, begin a capability process.

They cannot refuse SSP because they are short-staffed, because they doubt you without evidence, or because the absence is inconvenient. If SSP is refused, they must explain why in writing using the statutory form, and you can ask HMRC to make a determination.

If the illness is long term

Where a condition lasts or is likely to last twelve months or more and has a substantial effect on daily activities, it may count as a disability. That brings a duty on the employer to make reasonable adjustments, which is a stronger protection than anything in the sick pay rules.

Phased returns, adjusted duties, changed hours and equipment all fall within that duty, and raising it early tends to produce better outcomes than waiting until a capability process has started.