Sick pay and income protection
Statutory Sick Pay 2026/27 and what it leaves uncovered
Enter your average weekly earnings before tax. The calculator applies the rule in force since the April 2026 reform.
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Statutory Sick Pay from 2026
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
SSP a week
£123.25
| 80% of your earnings | £360.00 |
| Flat rate cap | £123.25 |
| Over 28 weeks | £3,451 |
Paid from the first day off sick. Taxed like wages.
Statutory Sick Pay is the minimum an employer must pay an employee who is too ill to work. For the 2026/27 tax year it is £123.25 a week or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, paid from the first day off sick for up to 28 weeks. Both rules came in on 6 April 2026: before that date, SSP started only after unpaid waiting days and the lowest earners could not get it at all. Someone earning £140 a week before tax now gets £112.00; anyone earning £450 or more gets the full £123.25. Over the full 28 weeks that is £3,451 at most, before tax and National Insurance. For most households that covers a fraction of the rent or mortgage and nothing else, which is the gap income protection and company sick pay schemes exist to fill.
Rates read and sums checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the figures are worked out
SSP at different earnings
The 80% rule only bites below average weekly earnings of £154.06: above that, everyone gets the same flat rate, whatever their salary. So for a full-time employee on an ordinary wage, SSP is a fixed amount that does not move with pay, and the higher the salary, the larger the drop.
| Average weekly earnings | SSP a week | About a month | Total over 28 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | £80.00 | £347 | £2,240 |
| £125 | £100.00 | £433 | £2,800 |
| £150 | £120.00 | £520 | £3,360 |
| £175 | £123.25 | £534 | £3,451 |
| £200 | £123.25 | £534 | £3,451 |
| £300 | £123.25 | £534 | £3,451 |
| £450 | £123.25 | £534 | £3,451 |
| £700 | £123.25 | £534 | £3,451 |
What the reform changed, and what it did not
GOV.UK’s guidance for absences that span the change sets out the transition: waiting days no longer apply from 6 April 2026, and an employee who earned too little to qualify before that date becomes entitled. What stayed the same is the length. SSP still runs for 28 weeks at most, linked periods of sickness less than 8 weeks apart still count as one, and a series of linked periods ends entitlement after three years. For a short absence the reform pays more; for a long one it changes almost nothing.
Reading your employer’s scheme against it
Company sick pay schemes are set by the contract, not by law. A common shape is a number of weeks of full pay followed by a number of weeks of half pay, often growing with length of service. SSP is included in those payments, not added to them. Once company pay ends, SSP continues alone until week 28 if any weeks are left. The deferred period calculator uses your scheme to show where your income drops.
Why SSP matters when choosing cover
An income protection policy with a short deferred period overlaps SSP; one that starts after 28 weeks begins where SSP ends and New Style ESA takes over at a lower rate. SSP is paid by the employer whatever private cover you hold; for ESA, any policy benefit has to be declared when you claim. Because the state pays so little beyond the first months, the longer deferred periods are where the gap is widest. The income protection timeline adds the policy to the state payments week by week.
Tax and National Insurance on SSP
SSP is paid through payroll like wages, so income tax and National Insurance are deducted in the usual way if the total pay is high enough. Whether anything is deducted depends on the total paid in the period, on other pay in the tax year and on your tax code. That is a different treatment from an income protection policy paid for by the employee, whose benefit is free of income tax. When comparing a policy with SSP, compare the policy benefit with SSP after deductions, not before.