Statutory Sick Pay Forms UK: SC2, SSP1 & 2026 Changes

At a glance

• SSP weekly rate for 2026/27: £123.25, or 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
• From 6 April 2026 — no waiting days: SSP is payable from an employee's first qualifying day of sickness. The old rule requiring the first three qualifying days to go unpaid was removed by section 10 of the Employment Rights Act 2025.
• From 6 April 2026 — no earnings threshold: the Lower Earnings Limit for SSP eligibility was removed by section 11 of the Employment Rights Act 2025. Employees no longer need to earn a minimum weekly amount to qualify.
• Self-certification: for absences of 7 calendar days or fewer, no fit note is required. There is no legally mandated form — HMRC's SC2 remains the standard template, but an employer's own process is equally valid.
• Fit notes: can only be required once an absence runs beyond 7 days in a row (including non-working days), and can now be issued by a GP/hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist, or physiotherapist.
• Form SSP1: completed by the employer, not the employee, whenever SSP cannot be paid or is ending — supports a claim for Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance.
• Maximum SSP: up to 28 weeks per period of incapacity for work, including linked periods 8 weeks or less apart.
• Record-keeping: no SSP-specific format is prescribed, but general PAYE record-keeping rules require payroll records to be kept for at least 3 years after the end of the tax year.

What Statutory Sick Pay is, and what the forms are for

Statutory Sick Pay is a legal minimum payment employers must make to eligible employees who are off work sick. The paperwork around it is not a contract or a legal notice in its own right — it is a record: evidence that an absence happened, that the correct pay decision was made, and that the employer can show HMRC what it did if asked.

Three things typically appear during a period of sickness absence. Self-certification covers the first seven days, without needing a fit note. A fit note takes over once an absence runs longer than that. Form SSP1 is used whenever SSP cannot be paid at all, or is coming to an end, so the employee can look at other support instead.

This guide covers England, Wales and Scotland (Great Britain), where SSP is governed by Part 11 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. Northern Ireland has parallel legislation, amended in the same way and on the same date by sections 12 and 13 of the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The April 2026 changes: SSP from day one, no earnings threshold

Before 6 April 2026, SSP worked differently in two important ways. First, an employee generally needed to be sick for four or more consecutive days — including weekends and other non-working days — before a "period of incapacity for work" arose at all. Second, even once that threshold was met, the first three qualifying days were unpaid "waiting days"; SSP only started from the fourth qualifying day. There was also a Lower Earnings Limit: an employee had to earn above a set weekly amount, averaged over 8 weeks, to qualify at all.

Sections 10 and 11 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 removed all three features. They amended Part 11 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 so that a period of incapacity for work now arises from a single day of sickness, waiting days no longer exist, and the Lower Earnings Limit condition was omitted from the list of circumstances that disqualify an employee. Both changes were brought into force on 6 April 2026 by The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026, which also set out transitional rules for employees who were already partway through a period of sickness, or serving waiting days, when the change took effect.

The practical result: SSP is now paid from an employee's very first qualifying day of sickness, and there is no earnings test to check before working out entitlement. Calculations are still usually based on average weekly earnings over an 8-week period, and an employee who has been paid for less than 8 weeks still qualifies.

Worked example: a short absence under the old and new rules

Priya, a fictional retail assistant, works Monday to Friday — five qualifying days a week. She is off sick on a Monday and Tuesday, then returns to work on the Wednesday.

Before 6 April 2026: a two-day absence would not have met the four-consecutive-day threshold for a period of incapacity for work at all. No SSP would have been payable for those two days, regardless of how the waiting-days rule might otherwise have applied — Priya would have relied on any contractual sick pay her employer offered instead.

From 6 April 2026: the same two-day absence is a period of incapacity for work in its own right, and there are no waiting days to serve. Provided Priya meets the other basic conditions — she has an employment contract, has done some work under it, and told her employer in time — SSP is payable for both days. Using the published daily rate for a five-qualifying-day week (£24.65 a day, based on the £123.25 weekly rate for 2026/27), that is £49.30 in SSP for the two days, paid through payroll in the normal way.

Self-certification: no fixed form, but the SC2 remains the standard template

An employee must tell their employer they are sick within whatever time limit the employer has set, or within 7 days if no time limit is set — and an employer cannot insist this is done in person or on a special form. If an employee is late telling their employer without good reason, the employer does not have to pay SSP for the days the employee was late reporting.

For the first 7 calendar days of an absence, an employee is not expected to produce a fit note. This is the self-certification window. There is no single form the law requires for this: an employer is free to use its own process, provided it captures enough detail. HMRC's SC2 form — the Employee's Statement of Sickness — remains the standard published template employees can use to record the dates and nature of a short illness, and many employers still ask for it or something equivalent. Keep whatever record is used on file.

Fit notes: who can issue one, and when you can ask for one

An employer can only ask for a fit note once an employee has been off work for more than 7 days in a row, including non-working days. A fit note (sometimes still called a sick note) must be issued by one of a specific list of healthcare professionals: a GP or hospital doctor, a registered nurse, an occupational therapist, a pharmacist, or a physiotherapist. It can be printed or digital, and GOV.UK's general guidance on taking sick leave sets out what a fit note should contain.

An employer cannot withhold SSP simply because a fit note arrives late. If both employer and employee agree, other evidence can be accepted instead of a fit note — for example an Allied Health Professional Health and Work Report from a physiotherapist or occupational therapist, or a plan to support a return to work.

Form SSP1: when you must issue it, and the deadlines

Form SSP1 is completed by the employer, not a healthcare professional or the employee. It explains why SSP cannot be paid, or why it is ending, and the employee uses it to apply for Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance. Getting the timing right matters, because delays can leave the employee without income while a benefits claim is processed.

GOV.UK sets out three separate deadlines for issuing form SSP1:

• If SSP is not payable at all: send the SSP1 within 7 days of the employee's first day off sick.
• If SSP ends unexpectedly while the employee is still sick: send the SSP1 within 7 days of it ending.
• If SSP is expected to end before the sickness does: send the SSP1 on or before the start of the 23rd week of sickness.

If an employer already knows an employee will be off sick for more than 28 weeks, the SSP1 can be completed before SSP actually ends, so the employee can apply for Employment and Support Allowance in good time. If an employee thinks a decision is unfair, the form explains how to appeal to HMRC.

Linked periods of sickness and the 28-week cap

SSP is paid for up to 28 weeks in a single period of incapacity for work. Separate spells of sickness count together — are "linked" — if each lasts at least one full working day and they are 8 weeks apart or less. Once a continuous run of linked periods lasts more than 3 years, the employee is no longer eligible for SSP at all.

A handful of situations take an employee outside SSP entirely: having already received the full 28 weeks, receiving Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance, being off for a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the expected week of childbirth, having been in custody or on strike on the first day of sickness, working outside the EU where the employer is not liable for the employee's National Insurance, or having received Employment and Support Allowance within 12 weeks of starting or returning to work. Any of these should route straight to an SSP1 rather than an SSP calculation.

Employees can also qualify for SSP from more than one job, and statutory annual leave continues to accrue while an employee is off sick, however long the absence — an employer cannot force an employee to take annual leave instead of sick leave.

Record-keeping: what to keep, and for how long

There used to be a dedicated legal requirement to keep SSP records in a specific way — regulation 13 of the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 required employers to keep records of qualifying days, unpaid days and the reasons for non-payment for 3 years. That regulation was revoked from 6 April 2014, and current GOV.UK guidance is simply that employers can choose how they keep sickness-absence records — HMRC may want to see them if a dispute arises over whether SSP was paid correctly.

That does not mean record-keeping is optional in practice. SSP payments run through payroll, and the general duty to retain PAYE records — under regulation 97 of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 — requires records relating to payments and deductions to be kept for at least 3 years after the end of the tax year they relate to. A clear payroll record or spreadsheet showing sickness dates, qualifying days and amounts paid will normally satisfy both the general PAYE duty and any HMRC query about a specific SSP decision.

One point worth flagging for cash-flow planning: SSP cannot be recovered from HMRC. Unlike Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and similar payments, the cost sits with the employer in full.

What to do

1. Check the basic conditions. The employee needs an employment contract, must have done some work under it, must have been sick for at least one full working day, and must have told the employer in time. There is no earnings test to check any more.
2. Use self-certification for the first 7 days. No fit note is needed, and no specific form is legally required — HMRC's SC2 is the standard option if you want a written record.
3. Only ask for a fit note beyond 7 days. It can come from a GP, hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist.
4. Pay from day one. There are no waiting days and no minimum-earnings check — SSP starts from the first qualifying day of the absence, subject to the other eligibility conditions.
5. Track linked periods and the 28-week cap. Absences 8 weeks or less apart count together; entitlement ends after 3 years of continuous linked periods, or after 28 weeks of SSP in one go.
6. Issue an SSP1 promptly whenever SSP is not payable or is ending — the deadline depends on which of the three scenarios applies.
7. Keep payroll records for at least 3 years after the end of the relevant tax year, and remember SSP itself cannot be recovered from HMRC.
8. If your business becomes insolvent, contact HMRC's Statutory Payment Disputes Team about sick employees who continue working for you, and issue an SSP1 if you terminate a sick employee's contract.

This guide provides general information about Statutory Sick Pay forms and processes in England, Wales and Scotland. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 · Next review due: April 2027 or on legislative change.