Work out your employee's Statutory Sick Pay manually
How to calculate your employee's Statutory Sick Pay if you cannot use the GOV.UK calculator.
Check that your employee is eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) before reading this guide.
You can usually use the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) calculator to work out how much SSP to pay to your employees. This guide explains how to manually work out how much SSP to pay when you cannot use the calculator (for example, if there has been more than one Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW)).
You will need to know what the following terms mean to use this guide.
Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW)
A PIW is a period of sickness lasting at least one full day.
All days of sickness count towards the total number of days in a PIW, including:
- bank holidays
- weekends
- non-working days
SSP is paid from the first full working day in a PIW.
Qualifying days
You only need to pay SSP for qualifying days. These are the days that your employee normally works (their contracted working days). You can decide not to use contracted working days, for example, if your employee works a different pattern each week.
If you cannot agree the qualifying days with your employee, they are worked out as follows:
- if you and your employee agree which days they are required to work under their contract, those days are the qualifying days
- if you both agree that there are no working days in any week, Wednesday becomes the qualifying day
- if you cannot agree which days are working days in a particular week, every day is a qualifying day except days you both agree no employees would be required to work
Linking Periods of Incapacity for Work
If the gap between PIWs is 8 weeks (56 days) or less, you should link them and treat them as one PIW.
Decide on the entitlement to SSP by applying the qualifying conditions to the first day on the first PIW. Do not use the start of any later linked PIW.
For example, an employee’s SSP rate is calculated at the start of the first PIW. The rate stays the same during a linked period, even if their earnings change, as long as the gap between PIWs is 56 days or less.
Working out the average weekly earnings
Average weekly earnings must include all earnings on which Class 1 National Insurance contributions are due, or would be due if the employee’s earnings were high enough.
SSP is paid at 80% of average weekly earnings or the flat rate of £123.25, whichever is lower.
The amount of SSP paid depends on your employee’s average weekly earnings in a relevant period.
All earnings paid in the relevant period are divided by the number of days, weeks or months in that relevant period.
The relevant period
The end of the relevant period is the last normal payday before the first complete day of sickness.
The start of the relevant period is the day after the last normal payday. It must be at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period.
Example for an employee who is weekly paid
If the first full day of sickness for the employee was 11 June 2026 and their payday is every Friday, the last payday before the first day of sickness was 5 June 2026.
This means the payday at least 8 weeks before 5 June 2026 is 10 April 2026.
The relevant period is 11 April 2026 to 5 June 2026.
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Add up all the earnings paid during the relevant period.
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Divide the total by 8 (the number of weeks in the relevant period).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
Example for an employee who is monthly paid
If the first full day of sickness for the employee was 13 July 2026 and their payday is on the last day of the month, the last payday before the first day of sickness was 30 June 2026.
This means the payday at least 8 weeks before 30 June 2026 is 30 April 2026.
The relevant period is 1 May 2026 to 30 June 2026.
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Add up all the earnings paid during the relevant period.
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Divide the total by 2 (the number of months in the relevant period).
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Multiply by 12 (the number of months in the year).
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Divide by 52 (the number of weeks in the year).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
New employees who have not had 8 weeks earnings yet
Employees may not have worked for you for long enough for the normal average weekly earnings rules to apply, or have worked for you before in a previous contract which does not link with the current contract.
An employee’s average weekly earnings is worked out differently when the last normal payday before the PIW is known and either:
- there are no previous paydays covering at least 8 weeks pay
- the new employee falls sick before they have their first payday
The relevant period becomes the period represented by all the earnings paid under the contract, before the first day of sick absence.
The employee has received an exact number of weeks pay
Work out the average weekly earnings by dividing the total earnings before the first day of sickness by the number of weeks in the relevant period.
If an employee received 5 weeks earnings, work out the average weekly earnings by dividing the total of the 5 weeks earnings by 5.
The employee has not received an exact number of weeks pay
Work out the average weekly earnings by dividing the earnings before the first day of sickness by the number of days in the relevant period.
If an employee received 2 weeks and 3 days earnings (17 days), divide the earnings by 17 (days) and multiply by 7, regardless of the number of days a week the employee is expected to work.
When the PIW is before any earnings have been paid, use the employee’s contractual earnings to work out how much SSP they should receive based on the rate of pay for their job.
The employee has not been paid any wages throughout the relevant period
You must use your employee’s normal earnings as stated in their contract if they are not paid any wages that they are entitled to in the relevant period.
Not paying wages does not mean you are not liable to pay SSP.
Multiple or changed pay frequency in the relevant period
An employee can have weekly and monthly paydays, or change from weekly to monthly paid within the relevant period.
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Work out the unrounded average weekly earnings in each pay pattern separately.
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Add all of the average weekly earnings together.
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Divide the total by the number of pay patterns in the relevant period.
This will give you the average weekly earnings for the whole of the relevant period.
Mistimed payments
This only applies to regular payments of earnings not made on an employee’s normal due date, for example due to a bank holiday.
A mistimed payment happens when the date of the actual payment of earnings is made earlier or later than the normal contractual payday, such as an annual holiday.
Do not confuse it with a payroll error, when a mistake made in the payroll means there is a shortfall of pay when working out the average weekly earnings.
Divide the total earnings by the number of weeks wages that you have paid, rather than the number of weeks in the relevant period.
Example for mistimed payments
A weekly paid employee takes 2 weeks paid holiday. You pay them 3 weeks wages on the last payday before they take their leave. Six weeks after their holiday, the employee has a sickness absence.
The 8 week relevant period represents only 6 weeks wages. This is because the week before the relevant period you paid them their weekly pay plus another 2 weeks’ pay in advance of their holidays, which you would have normally made the payment in the relevant period.
Divide the total earnings you actually paid your employee in the relevant period by the number of weeks wages you paid, which is 6.
Overpaid or underpaid earnings during the relevant period
Average weekly earnings are always based on all earnings actually paid to the employee within the relevant period, regardless of any over or underpaid wages in that period.
When over or under payments of wages happen within the relevant period, treat them in the same way as all other earnings paid in that period for working out average weekly earnings.
You should use the agreed earnings to work out an employee’s average weekly earnings if both:
- the wrong earnings have been paid and there is a disadvantage for you or your employee
- there is written evidence of an agreement between you and your employee of what the actual earnings that should have been paid were
When there is no evidence of an agreement, you should work out the average weekly earnings using the earnings actually paid.
Non-contractual benefits
Some schemes for childcare support that you provide and make available to your employees may be exempt from PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance contributions, for example childcare vouchers.
You must not deduct the value of childcare vouchers provided during a period of sickness from SSP.
When an employee agrees to accept childcare vouchers as part of salary sacrifice, their SSP entitlement will be assessed on their gross earnings on which National Insurance contributions are payable.
Salary sacrifice
If you provide benefits under a salary sacrifice scheme, work out the employee’s average weekly earnings using the amount of earnings actually paid to your employee during the relevant period, minus the salary sacrifice.
Working out Statutory Sick Pay
This guidance applies from 6 April 2026. Find out how to deal with continuous absences that began before 6 April 2026.
When you have worked out the average weekly earnings, calculate how much SSP is due and pay it on the same day that you would normally pay wages and for the same period.
A full week for SSP purposes begins on a Sunday and ends at midnight on the following Saturday.
From 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, the weekly SSP rate is either:
- 80% of the employees average weekly earnings
- £123.25
You must pay whichever amount is lower.
If your employee works the same qualifying days each week, pay the relevant weekly rate of SSP for each full week they are off sick.
If the sickness period is less than a full week, pay SSP using a daily rate.
To work out the daily rate:
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Divide the weekly SSP rate by the number of qualifying days in that week.
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Multiply the result by the number of qualifying days the employee is sick.
Find out more about rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 to use from 6 April 2026 for SSP, including:
- unrounded daily rates
- rates to use to work out SSP for different numbers of qualifying days in a week
Examples of calculating SSP
The following examples show how to:
- work out if you need to use the standard rate or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings
- how to calculate the daily rate
- calculate the amount of SSP due
Example 1
Average weekly earnings are £185. 80% of £185 is £148, so the standard rate of £123.25 is lower. The correct rate to pay is £123.25 a week.
If the employee works 5 qualifying days in a week, divide £123.25 by 5 to calculate the daily rate of £24.65.
If the employee is sick for 3 qualifying days, £24.65 x 3 is £73.95.
You must pay £73.95 SSP for that week.
Example 2
Average weekly earnings are £185. 80% of £185 is £148, so the standard rate of £123.25 is lower. The correct rate to pay is £123.25 a week.
If the employee works 6 qualifying days in a week, divide £123.25 by 6 to calculate the daily rate of £20.54.
If the employee is sick for 4 qualifying days, £20.54 x 4 is £82.16.
You must pay £82.16 SSP for that week.
Example 3
Average weekly earnings are £145. 80% of £145 is £116, so the standard rate of £123.25 a week is higher. The correct rate to pay is £116 a week.
If the employee works 4 qualifying days in a week, divide £116 by 4 to calculate the daily rate of £29.
If the employee is sick for 2 qualifying days, £29 x 2 is £58.
You must pay £58 SSP for that week.
Example 4
Average weekly earnings are £145. 80% of £145 is £116, so the standard rate of £123.25 a week is higher. The correct rate to pay is £116 a week.
If the employee works 5 qualifying days in a week, divide £116 by 5 to calculate the daily rate of £23.20.
If the employee is sick for 3 qualifying days, £23.20 x 3 is £69.60.
You must pay £69.60 SSP for that week.
Get help and advice
Contact the HMRC Employer helpline if you have any questions about working out SSP.
Updates to this page
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We have updated the page for the new Statutory Sick Pay rules that start on 6 April 2026.
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Rates and examples for the 2025 to 2026 tax year have been updated.
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Rates and examples for the 2024 to 2025 tax year have been updated.
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The section about COVID-19 sickness absence has been removed.
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We've have amended the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rates for 2023 to 2024.
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We have updated the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rates for 2023 to 2024.
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We have updated the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rates for 2022 to 2023 and added the section 'Daily rates table for days of sickness from 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023'. We have removed the tables and examples for 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019, 6 April 2019 to 5 April 2020 and 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021.
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Information about employees who became sick with COVID-19 on or before 24 March 2022 has been added.
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Information about when someone in the employees support bubble (or extended household in Scotland or Wales) has coronavirus symptoms on or after 6 July 2020 has been added.
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New guidance added for employees who have been contacted by NHS test and trace system.
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Rates and examples for the 2020 to 2021 tax year have been updated.
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We've added guidance for employers whose employees are 'shielding'.
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The Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rates for 2020 to 2021 have been added.
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Information added on how to deal with Statutory Sick Pay for employees self-isolating due to coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Page has been updated with new tax year changes from 6 April 2019.
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Change to Average Weekly Earning for tax year 2018 to 2019.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2018 to 2019.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2017 to 2018.
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Clarification has been added to the section 'overpaid/underpaid earnings during the relevant period'.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2016 to 2017.
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From 27 April 2015 the address you send your completed SP32 forms to has changed.
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The Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) daily rates from 6 April 2015 to 5 April 2016 for employers calculating SSP manually are now available.
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First published.