Employment Rights Act
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
Your contract of employment
Providing evidence of the incapacity for work
The 80% rule
Paying SSP
NASUWT supports the Safe Sick Pay Campaign
Further advice and guidance

Employment Rights Act

As part of the Employment Rights Act, from 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be payable from the first full day of sickness absence for eligible employees rather than after three days, commonly referred to as ‘waiting days’.

Other key changes:

• SSP will be available to all eligible employees regardless of their earnings - the Lower Earnings Limit has been removed; and

• the rate of Statutory Sick Pay for all employees, including supply teachers who are eligible, will be calculated at 80% of their average weekly earnings or the flat weekly rate of £123.25, whichever is lower.

These changes will benefit those with short-term sickness who will receive financial support immediately, as well as benefit the very low paid who could have access to SSP from the first day of absence.

NASUWT is aware that there will be a significant number of supply teachers who are concerned about their situation when they are sick and are unable to work.

The Union has produced this advice and guidance to ensure that supply teacher members who are sick and unable to work are aware of their rights and entitlements and supported during this time.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

SSP is the minimum amount of sick pay you should receive from your employer, e.g. your agency and/or umbrella company, if you are absent from work due to sickness, subject to eligibility and rules on notification set out by your employer. 

Your contract of employment

Your rights and entitlements for sick pay should be set out in the overarching contract of employment that you have with your agency and/or umbrella company.

The agency and/or umbrella company must provide details of your sick pay entitlement in a written statement of employment particulars. This must be provided to all workers and employees from day one.

In addition, if working through an employment agency, you must be given a Key Information Document (KID) containing the key terms and conditions that govern assignments, on or before the engagement start date, including the provisions in relation to sickness absence and sick pay.

Your employer may have an occupational scheme that might pay you more than SSP, but they cannot pay you less if you meet the Government eligibility criteria for SSP.

Providing evidence of the incapacity for work

To claim SSP, you must notify the employer about your sickness absence.

You should be told by your employer, often in the overarching contract of employment, what you are expected to provide as evidence of your incapacity for work and when this should be provided.

If required, you should be able to get a ‘sick note’, although it should be noted that you do not have to provide a doctor’s certificate, e.g. a ‘Fit Note’, for the first seven days of you incapacity for work as you are able to self-certificate.

How much will I receive?

If you are eligible, you may qualify for up to 80% of your average weekly earnings or the flat rate of £123.25 per week, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks depending on whether you have three months’ continuous employment [1] with your employer, e.g. employment agency and/or umbrella company.

The amount you will receive depends on the number of days you normally work each week - the number of qualifying days - as set out in your contract of employment and how many of those days you are off sick - the period of incapacity for work.

A period of incapacity for work is formed when you are off work for one full day or more and includes weekends, bank holidays and non-working days where you are incapable of work due to illness.

If you undertake any work, no matter how long, before going home ill, then that day cannot be treated as a day of incapacity for the purposes of SSP.

The 80% rule

The earnings that are taken into account for calculating 80% of your average weekly earnings are broadly the average weekly earnings for the prior eight weeks before the first full day of illness.

Where you have not been working for an agency or umbrella company for eight weeks, the 80% is calculated by reference to the amount of pay you are due to be paid under you contract, e.g. the daily rate or the rate agreed for a long-term assignment.

You cannot combine earnings from different contracts to meet the threshold outlined above, unless those jobs are with the same employer.

Further details regarding the eligibility for SSP for supply teachers:

• You must be an employee of the employer, e.g. agency or umbrella company, and have undertaken some work under your contract of employment, although you do not have to have received payment in order to qualify. This means that if you have only just started working you may qualify for SSP even if you have only worked a few minutes on your first day work and have not been paid yet.
  
  It is important to note that social security legislation uses a broader definition of ‘employee’ for the purposes of SSP, which means you may receive SSP as an agency worker if you meet the eligibility criteria and the agency and/or umbrella company is liable to pay NICs for you.

• If you have a contract with more than one agency or umbrella company and your earnings are aggregated for the purposes of NICs, you must be incapable of work under all your contracts before they are entitled to SSP.

• If you are undertaking two or more jobs with different agencies/umbrella companies you may be able to claim SSP from both agencies - one for each contract you are unable to work under.

• ‘Periods of incapacity for work’ are linked and treated as one ‘period of incapacity for work’ if the gap between them is 56 days or fewer, irrespective of whether or not the reasons for the absence are linked. A period of incapacity for work is formed when you are off work for one full day or more. There is also no requirement for the average weekly earnings to be checked again if there is 56 days or fewer between periods of incapacity for work.

Tables for linking ‘periods of incapacity for work’ can be found at Statutory Sick Pay: tables for linking Periods of Incapacity for Work.

Paying SSP

Entitlement to SSP covers any period of illness up to a maximum of 28 weeks and stops when your period of illness ends or when your contract ends, whichever comes first.

It is worth noting that, for agency workers such as supply teachers, if you have less than three months continuous service, any SSP entitlement will continue to the end of the assignment you had agreed to work.

If you have already received 28 weeks of statutory sick pay and the current period of illness is linked to the last period, then you would not be eligible for further SSP payments.

Once the maximum entitlement to SSP has been paid, you must return to work for more than 56 days for a new entitlement to SSP to begin.

There is no need for an employer to show SSP separately on payslips as long as the statutory minimum is paid.

A daily rate of SSP is needed to pay SSP for part of a week. The daily rate of SSP is the weekly rate divided by the number of ‘qualifying days’ in that week.

If your number of ‘qualifying days’ varies, then calculations undertaken may need to be done separately for each week.

If the period of receipt of SSP straddles different tax years, the calculations should reflect the old and the new rates for each relevant period.

SSP is not payable if you are getting any form of statutory paid leave, e.g. Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay.

Disputes over SSP

If you have concerns around SSP, these should be raised with your local NASUWT Representative, or, alternatively, you can contact NASUWT for further advice.

If there is a dispute as to whether or not you are entitled to SSP, or where entitlement to SSP has come to an end, the employer should set out its reasons using Form SSP1 and send it to you.

If appropriate, you can contact the HMRC Statutory Payment Dispute Team within six months of the refusal to pay.

NASUWT supports the Safe Sick Pay Campaign

The Safe Sick Pay Campaign is supported by a number of organisations and prominent politicians.

The Campaign calls upon the Government to address the derisory levels of statutory sick pay (SSP) available to workers, including supply teachers.

Members can use the resources to promote the campaign, including contacting your MP.

What is the campaign?

No-one chooses to get ill, but when we do, we want to know that we can take the time to get better and still pay the bills to look after ourselves and our families.

We all deserve to know our workplaces are safe and we won’t catch illnesses from colleagues and take them home to our loved ones.

We want to see a sick pay system that is good for growth, good for public health and good for working families.

But did you know that the UK has the worst statutory sick pay scheme of the OECD?

The diagnosis

• Statutory sick pay in the UK is so low that it is nowhere near enough to pay the bills.

• Paid at a rate of just £116.75 a week, this works out at less than £3 an hour for someone working full time - it is a rate that nobody can live on.

• And to get any sick pay in the first place, we need to lose three days’ pay first.

• A third of working people in the UK rely on statutory sick pay alone to get through periods of sickness.

• A further 1.3 million employees - mainly people working multiple jobs like cleaners, carers or parents juggling childcare with work - slip through the cracks and get no sick pay at all.

• The last thing we need when we’re ill is worry about the bills.

Safe Sick Pay champions

We are supported by a group of over 100 MPs and peers, including Sir Stephen Timms MP, Debbie Abrahams MP, Baroness O’Grady and many others.

Our campaign also has backing from business and professional bodies, including Legal and General, CIPD, the Association of British Insurers, Business for Health and more.

The benefits of reform

• A recent report by WPI Economics showed that sick pay reforms could result in a net financial benefit of £4.1 billion annually to business, Government and the wider economy.

• Higher sick pay reduces rates of presenteeism and the spread of illness.

• Access to paid sick leave increases the odds that a sick employee will come back to work after recovery.

• Reforming sick pay could help ensure that fewer people fall out of the workforce.

Get in touch	Write to your MP

Further advice and guidance

For further advice and guidance, please contact the NASUWT. We can help with information and advice to support you regarding SSP. We will be happy to discuss your circumstances and answer your questions.

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Footnote
[1] For the purposes of SSP for agency workers, such as supply teachers, continuous employment is not broken by periods of sickness or annual leave or when the agency is unable to offer you work.