UK Employment Update — May 2026 The Employment Rights Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, contains the most significant reform to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in decades. When enacted, it will remove the three-day waiting period that currently applies before SSP becomes payable — meaning employees will be entitled to SSP from their first day of absence. Use the SSP calculator to check current entitlements for your workforce. For office-based businesses with small teams and low absence rates, this is a manageable change. For operational businesses — warehouses, hospitality, logistics, care, construction — with larger workforces and higher baseline absence rates, it's a meaningful cost and process change that requires preparation. What Is Changing Day-one SSP entitlement. Currently, SSP is payable from the fourth day of absence. The first three days (the "waiting days") are unpaid, which acts as a modest deterrent to short-term absence. Under the reforms, SSP will be payable from day one. Lower earnings threshold. Currently, employees must earn at least £123 per week to qualify for SSP. The reforms will remove this threshold, meaning all employees — including those on very low hours — will be entitled to SSP from day one of illness. Rate remains at £116.75/week. The SSP rate itself is not changing in the current reform. The change is solely to eligibility and the waiting day removal. Timing is not yet confirmed. The Employment Rights Bill is still progressing through Parliament. Implementation dates have not been set. However, businesses should prepare now rather than wait for a short-notice implementation period. Who Pays and How Much SSP is paid by the employer, not the government (unlike some other countries). There is no government rebate scheme for most employers — the cost sits entirely on the business. The additional cost per absence episode (three waiting days at SSP rate): SSP rate: £116.75/week = approximately £23.35/day Three waiting days = approximately £70.05 per absence episode For a warehouse employing 50 staff with an average of 6 absence episodes per employee per year, the additional SSP cost alone could exceed £21,000 annually. That's before the indirect costs of cover, disruption, and administration. The Return-to-Work Dynamic The three waiting days currently serve a partial deterrent function. Removing them will, at the margin, make very short absences (one or two days) more likely — because there is no longer a financial cost to the employee for a short illness absence. The businesses best placed to manage this are those with strong return-to-work processes already in place: Consistent return-to-work conversations — even for one-day absences — signal that absence is noticed and managed. See the return-to-work interview guide for a practical structure to follow. This has a well-evidenced deterrent effect that the SSP waiting days don't. Bradford Factor tracking — with day-one SSP, single-day absences will be SSP-qualifying events that count toward the Bradford Factor score. Having automated tracking in place means these absences are captured and flagged. Manager accountability — if absence is tracked and visible, line managers have both the visibility and the accountability to manage it. If it's tracked in a spreadsheet nobody looks at, the removal of the waiting-day deterrent has no compensating control. What Businesses Should Do Now Audit your current SSP processes. Do your managers know when SSP is due? Is it being triggered and paid correctly for current absences? Many businesses have latent compliance issues with SSP that will become more visible when day-one entitlement applies. Review your absence management policy. Does it cover very short absences? Does it require a return-to-work conversation for one-day sickness? If your policy only triggers a formal process after three or more days, it may need updating. Model the financial impact. Use your current absence data (number of absence episodes per year, average duration) to estimate the additional SSP cost with the SSP calculator. This helps you plan budgets and make the case for absence management investment. Strengthen your return-to-work processes now. The most effective response to increased SSP cost is fewer absence episodes — and the most effective tool for reducing absence frequency is a consistent, documented return-to-work process. Common Mistakes Waiting for the legislation to pass before acting. Implementation timelines can be short. Businesses that wait until the law changes to update their processes will be behind from day one. Treating SSP reform as purely a payroll change. The cost change is real but manageable. The bigger operational question is whether your absence management infrastructure is ready for day-one entitlement — because the deterrent effect of waiting days is being removed. Not communicating the change to managers. Line managers who currently tell staff "the first three days are unpaid" will need updated guidance. Incorrect information given to employees about their SSP entitlement creates legal exposure. Related Tools & Solutions SSP Calculator — calculate statutory sick pay