Statutory Sick Pay calculator
Work out Statutory Sick Pay under the rules from 6 April 2026: the weekly and daily rate, 80% of earnings or £123.25, and the total for your days off sick.
- Statutory Sick Pay for 8 working days off
- £197.20
- Before tax and National Insurance, which come off as with your wages.
- Weekly rate
- £123.25 a week
- the flat rate, as 80% of your £461.54 a week is more
- Daily rate
- £24.65
- £123.25 ÷ 5 working days a week
- SSP days left
- 132 working days
- of the 140 SSP can cover: 28 weeks of 5-day weeks
Average weekly earnings: £2,000 a month × 12 ÷ 52 = £461.54.
80% of that is £369.23. The flat rate of £123.25 is lower, so that’s your weekly rate.
Daily rate: £123.25 ÷ 5 = £24.65.
1 full week × £123.25, plus 3 days × £24.65 = £73.95: £197.20.
From 6 April 2026, SSP is paid from your first day off sick, whatever you earn: £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings if that’s less, for up to 28 weeks (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 rates). Your employer works out average earnings from your pay in the 8 weeks before you fell ill, so use a normal week’s or month’s pay. A day only counts if you’re off for all of it. Absences 8 weeks or less apart link up and share the same 28 weeks, which this doesn’t track. Your contract may pay more than SSP.
What goes in
Enter your normal pay before tax, a week or a month, the number of days you normally work each week and how many of those working days you’re off sick. Your employer bases SSP on your average weekly earnings over the 8 weeks before you fell ill. For monthly pay that’s a month’s pay × 12 ÷ 52.
What the result means
SSP is a weekly rate split into a daily rate across the days you normally work. On £2,000 a month, 80% of your weekly earnings is £369.23, so the £123.25 flat rate applies. Over a 5-day week that’s £24.65 a day, and 8 working days off pays £197.20 before tax.
If 80% of your earnings is less than £123.25, you get 80% instead. On £145 a week that’s £116 a week.
The rules from 6 April 2026
SSP is now paid from the first full day you’re off sick, and there’s no minimum earnings to qualify. It’s £123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks. It comes from your employer on your normal payday, with tax and National Insurance taken off.
Before 6 April 2026 the first 3 days weren’t paid, and you had to earn at least £125 a week. If you were already off sick before then and still are, the new rate applies from 6 April. You keep the flat rate even if 80% of your earnings would be lower. If you earned under £125 a week, you may be entitled from 6 April 2026: the absence must have started on or after 22 September 2025, or you must have gone back to work for a while between then and 5 April 2026.
GOV.UK’s rate tables round each week up to the penny, so a spell that crosses weeks can differ by a penny from this total. Absences 8 weeks or less apart link up and share the same 28 weeks. Your contract may pay more.