New Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Transitional Protection April 2026

Following the passing of the Employment Rights Bill and the Royal Ascent of the Employment Rights Act on Thursday 18th December 2025, one of the major changes are the new rights to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from Monday 6th April 2026 (Easter Monday).

The Statutory Sick Pay measures include:

Removing the Lower Earnings Limit to make Statutory Sick Pay available to all employees regardless of their weekly earnings. The changes introduced by the Bill mean that the rate of Statutory Sick Pay will be 80% of an employee’s earnings or the uplifted flat rate of £123.25 whichever is lower.

Removing waiting days from the Statutory Sick Pay system and amending the Period of Incapacity for Work, so that eligible employees are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay from their first full day of sickness absence, rather than the fourth.

Inclusion of Statutory Sick Pay (including the current enforcement and disputes process) within a newly established single enforcement body – the Fair Work Agency.

Consequence of the new 80% rate

Currently anyone who earns average earnings at or above £125 per week is currently entitled to £118.75 SSP per week. If they were in continuous sickness under the current SSP rules they would see that weekly rate uplifted to £123,25 for any qualifying days that fall on or after 6th April 2026.

Under the new 80% or the flat rate, whichever is lower, those earning between £125 and £154.05 would see a drop in the expected SSP weekly rate on a continuous sickness basis. The government are protecting those who were already on continuous sickness entitled to SSP prior to 6th April 2026.

The DWP have set out transitional protections for those cases.

Transitional Protections

The DWP have issued the following guidance to aid software developers in preparing for the April 2026 change:

Transitional Protections for those in receipt of SSP prior to 6th April 2026 who are still off sick and continuing on SSP on 6th April 2026.

Some of those already in receipt of SSP prior to 6th April 2026 and continuing to receive SSP on 6th April 2026 would see a direct reduction in their rate of SSP.

The DWP confirm that the policy intent is for employees negatively affected in this way to be transitionally protected, whilst seeking to minimise complexity for employers, by allowing them to continue to receive the uprated flat rate

[That is] until:

• they return to work because they are fit for work/no longer incapable of work,
• they have exhausted their entitlement (i.e. up to 28 weeks),
• their contract of employment ends,
• the start of the exclusion period due to pregnancy (when the Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance period begins).

During this transitional protection period, an employee who earns between £125.00 and £154.05 per week and was off sick and in receipt of SSP before 6th April 2026 and continues to be off sick on 6th April 2026 will continue to be entitled to the flat rate of SSP at the uprated amount of £123.25… for the duration of their continuous sickness absence.

This would only apply to a continuous sickness absence – the transitional protection period would end when they return to work, when their SSP entitlement ends, their contract ends or the start of the exclusion period due to pregnancy begins (as set out above) whichever is soonest.

Should an employee return to work and then go off sick again within a period of 56 days, the new rate (80% earnings or the flat rate whichever is lower) would then apply to the second (linked) period of absence.

The transitional protection period will last no longer than 28 weeks.

This helps reduce complexity for employers to manage varying rates based on whether an employee’s linked period began before, or after, 6th April 2025.

It is possible to include in systems that anyone off sick and receiving SSP before the 6th April 2026 who continues to be off sick on 6th April 2026 and after will receive the SSP flat rate of £123.25 until they return to work or their period of entitlement ends.

This would meet the policy intent to transitionally protect the intended low paid cohortof employees (i.e. those earning between £125.00 and £154.05 per week) in practice. This is because anyone earning over £154.05 will get the flat rate of £123.25 as the flat rate is lower than 80% of earnings for those earning £154.06 or more.

Transitional Protections for those in receipt of SSP prior to 6th April 2026 who are still off sick and continuing on SSP on 6th April 2026

Joan earns £125 per week. She is off work sick before 6th April 2026 and is in receipt of SSP and she returns to work on 8th April 2026. Her SSP rate would be:

Clare, like Joan, earns £125 per week. She was off sick but returned to work on 4th April 2026. She therefore has no transitional protection because she wouldn’t see a drop in SSP income on 6th April 2026. Her SSP rate would be:

Mary earns £148 per week. She is also off work sick before 6th April 2026 and comes back to work on 8th May 2026. Her SSP rate would be:

Ahmad earns £150 per week, he is off work sick before 6th April 2026 and is in receipt of SSP, he returns to work on 17th April 2026. He would be transitionally protected because he would see his SSP rate increase to £123.25 in line with standard uprating procedure during this sickness absence. Once he returns to work, for any further sickness absence he will then receive 80% of his average weekly earnings. His SSP Rate would be:

Sarah earns £240 per week. She would not be transitionally protected because she would see no drop in SSP rate regardless of whether she was off sick or not before 6th April 2026. She would receive the SSP flat rate. Her SSP rate would be:

So what would be the very longest transitional protection period?

In many cases the transitional arrangements will end as soon as an employee returns to work from 6th April 2026. However, for someone who commenced entitlement to SSP on Sunday 5th April (the last day before the new SSP rules apply) and continued to be on sick leave following, SSP on the transitional flat rate basis would end at the very latest 28 weeks later on the Saturday 17th October 2026 when entitlement to 28 weeks SSP would have exhausted.

So what do employers need to do?

The DWP guide is to aid payroll software developers to prepare for the change. This change window is very tight and the transition design will vary from product to product.

Employers need to be aware of this requirement for transitional cases and ensure that the data presented to payroll is accurate and that payments are correct, either by automated functionality or by instruction.

Employers need to apply accurate dates and ranges to aid correct calculations of SSP to take place.

The following is the DWP guidance for Payroll and HR software developers

DWP guidance

And links to associated articles:

PAYadvice.UK 21/12/2025