UK Statutory Sick Pay Calculator

How do I use this Statutory Sick Pay calculator?

1. Choose your pay period, then enter your average gross pay for one of those periods. Use your pay before tax, including overtime and bonuses, and if it varies, the average over the 8 weeks before you went off sick.
2. Choose your qualifying days per week: the days you normally work or are contracted to work.
3. Enter the qualifying days you were off sick. Only days you would have worked count, so a Saturday you do not work is not one.
4. If you were off sick in the 8 weeks before this absence, enter the days of SSP already used. Otherwise leave it at 0.

The result shows which rate applies, your weekly and daily SSP, the total for the absence and how much of the 28-week limit it uses. The Summary tab shows the working.

What do I need to enter?

• Pay period — how often you are paid: weekly, every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks, monthly or yearly. Your pay is converted to average weekly earnings from it.
• Average gross pay — your pay for one pay period before tax, from 0 to 1,000,000. It decides whether the flat rate or 80% of earnings applies.
• Qualifying days per week — 1 to 7, the days you normally work. It sets the daily rate and the length of the 28-week limit in days.
• Qualifying days off sick — whole days you would have worked, 1 to 365. Part days are rounded down.
• SSP days already used — optional, 0 up to 28 weeks of your qualifying days. Days already paid in a linked absence use up the same limit.

What do the results show?

• SSP for this absence — the total payable before tax and National Insurance, rounded up to the next penny.
• Weekly SSP rate and Daily SSP rate — the weekly rate, and that rate divided by your qualifying days.
• Rate applied — Flat rate, or 80% of earnings when that is lower.
• 28-week limit used — qualifying days used out of the maximum, counting any days already used.
• Summary tab — the working, step by step.

How much is Statutory Sick Pay in 2026–27?

From 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 SSP is the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings. It is paid for each qualifying day you are off sick, from the first, for up to 28 weeks.

The two figures cross at £154.07 a week. Earn that or more and you get the flat rate; earn less and you get 80% of your pay. This is the table of daily rates at the flat rate:

These match HMRC’s published SSP table for 2026–27. At the 80% rate each figure scales down in proportion.

How is Statutory Sick Pay calculated?

Worked example, part time. A part-time employee averages £110.00 a week over 3 qualifying days and is off sick for 2 of them. 80% of £110.00 is £88.00, which is lower than £123.25, so the weekly rate is £88.00. That is £29.34 a day, and 2 days come to £88.00 × 2 ÷ 3 = £58.67.

Worked example, full time. A full-time employee averages £320.00 a week over 5 qualifying days and is off sick for 3. 80% of £320.00 is £256.00, which is higher than £123.25, so the flat rate applies. £123.25 ÷ 5 is £24.65 a day, and 3 days come to £73.95.

The totals come from the unrounded daily rate and are rounded up once, as in HMRC’s table, so they can differ by a penny from a rounded daily rate multiplied by the days. Your payslip can also differ by a penny or two because employers round each payment.

How is average weekly earnings worked out?

Your employer averages everything paid to you that is liable for Class 1 National Insurance, across a period of at least 8 weeks that ends on the last payday before your first full day off sick. It is not rounded.

• Weekly paid: add up the 8 weeks of pay and divide by 8.
• Monthly paid: add up the 2 months of pay, divide by 2, multiply by 12 and divide by 52. The pay period menu in the calculator does this for you.
• Every 2 or 4 weeks, or a yearly salary: the calculator converts these to a weekly figure in proportion, so a year’s pay is divided by 52.
• New starters with less than 8 weeks of pay are averaged over the pay they have received. Pay is not rounded to whole pence.

Who can get Statutory Sick Pay?

You can usually get SSP if all of these are true:

• You are an employee (self-employed people are not covered) and have started work for your employer.
• You have been ill for at least one full working day.
• You told your employer by their deadline, or within 7 days if they set none.
• You have not already had the maximum 28 weeks of SSP, and you are not getting Statutory Maternity Pay.
• You have not received Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the last 85 days.

Agency workers may be entitled, and special rules apply to some directors and educational workers. If your employer says you do not qualify, they should tell you why in writing, and you may be able to claim Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance instead.

What changed on 6 April 2026?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 changed SSP from 6 April 2026. The Government estimated that up to 1.3 million low-paid people would gain a right to SSP.

What if my sickness began before 6 April 2026?

The new rules start on 6 April 2026, but the transitional rules do not simply leave earlier absences on the old system. In brief:

• Waiting days no longer apply from 6 April 2026. SSP is not paid for waiting days before it.
• Below the old Lower Earnings Limit: you can be paid from 6 April 2026 if the absence began on or after 22 September 2025, or you returned to work at some point between then and 5 April 2026. An absence unbroken since 21 September 2025 or earlier gets nothing until you have been back at work for 8 weeks.
• Already on SSP earning between £125 and £154.05 a week: you are paid the £123.25 flat rate rather than a lower 80% figure, until you return to work or SSP ends.

This calculator applies the rules for sickness that began on or after 6 April 2026 and does not model these protections. See HMRC’s transitional guidance and the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026.

What does this calculator not cover?

It is guidance rather than payroll or legal advice, and it works only from what you enter. It does not:

• Check that you are eligible, or that your employer has been told in time
• Take off Income Tax or National Insurance, which come off SSP like normal wages
• Add company or contractual sick pay, which can be higher than SSP
• Model the transitional protections for sickness that began before 6 April 2026
• Apply the special rules for directors, educational workers or some agency workers

To see what is left after tax and National Insurance, try the UK take-home pay calculator. Employers can use the cost of employing someone calculator.

Disclaimer and sources

This calculator estimates UK Statutory Sick Pay under the rules for 2026–27. It is not payroll software, and your employer’s calculation is the one that counts. Rates last reviewed14 October 2026. The rates change each April, so confirm them on GOV.UK before relying on a figure.

• GOV.UK: Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
• GOV.UK: Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• GOV.UK: Work out your employee’s Statutory Sick Pay manually
• GOV.UK: Sickness absences that start before and end on or after 6 April 2026
• legislation.gov.uk: Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982, regulation 11
• legislation.gov.uk: Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026
• GOV.UK: Changes to sick pay will help people stay in work and grow economy
• Acas: Statutory sick pay

Frequently asked questions