1. The 2026 SSP rules
For sickness from 6 April 2026, eligible employees receive SSP from the first full qualifying day. The lower earnings threshold has been removed, and the weekly amount is the lower of £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings.
- ✓Pay only full qualifying days
- ✓Maximum entitlement remains 28 weeks
- ✓SSP weeks run Sunday to Saturday
- ✓Apply HMRC transition rules when an absence spans 6 April 2026
Periods separated by no more than 56 days link. Use the first period to establish entitlement and the SSP rate, subject to the specific 2026 transitional protections.
2. Variable-hours and zero-hours care workers
Casual, bank and zero-hours workers can qualify when they are employees for SSP purposes and meet the remaining conditions. Do not confuse an absence from allocated visits with the qualifying-day pattern used for SSP.
- ✓Record fixed contractual days where they exist
- ✓Agree a defensible variable pattern
- ✓Use statutory fallback rules if no pattern can be agreed
- ✓Do not infer pay for unscheduled shifts
- ✓Assess each job separately where the worker has multiple employers
- ✓Use special new-starter AWE rules where eight weeks of pay are unavailable
3. What enters average weekly earnings
Include earnings on which Class 1 National Insurance is due, or would be due if earnings were high enough. For care workers this can include basic visit pay, paid travel time, overtime, weekend/night enhancements, sleep-in or waking-night payments, bonuses and holiday pay paid in the relevant period.
The relevant period normally ends on the last normal payday before sickness and spans at least eight weeks. Mistimed payments and new starters require separate calculations; actual overpaid or underpaid earnings in the period are generally still used.
4. Reporting sickness without losing control of the rota
- ✓Define who receives the call and the out-of-hours escalation
- ✓Remove or reassign visits through the agreed scheduling process
- ✓State whether workers may contact clients directly
- ✓Record only the health information needed for the decision
- ✓Identify medication, double-up, time-critical and competency-specific visits immediately
- ✓Tell payroll and HR which dates and qualifying pattern are being used
5. Self-certification and fit notes
Workers normally self-certify for the first seven calendar days. An employer can require a fit note only after more than seven consecutive days, including non-working days.
Record whether the note says “not fit” or “may be fit,” its dates and any recommendations. Treat recommendations as the start of a return-to-work discussion, not an automatic instruction or dismissal decision.
6. Make a separate infection-control decision
A pay entitlement does not decide whether a worker can safely attend vulnerable people. Adult social-care guidance says workers with signs or symptoms of infection should be excluded and staffing requirements and contingency arrangements reviewed.
- ✓Symptoms and suspected infection
- ✓People at particular vulnerability
- ✓Relevant clinical or public-health advice
- ✓PPE and task-specific controls
- ✓Potentially exposed clients or colleagues
- ✓Outbreak escalation route
- ✓Safe return criteria
- ✓Staffing contingency plan
7. Reassign care in risk order
- 1Protect time-critical medication visits
- 2Secure double-up visits
- 3Match required competencies and restrictions
- 4Preserve continuity where practical
- 5Check travel feasibility between calls
- 6Check working-time and rest implications
- 7Escalate uncovered or late visits
- 8Communicate material changes to clients and commissioners
8. Long-term, repeated and protected absence
- ✓Keep reasonable, agreed contact
- ✓Consider occupational-health advice
- ✓Discuss phased returns and amended duties
- ✓Consider reasonable adjustments for disability
- ✓Adjust disability-related trigger points where reasonable
- ✓Record pregnancy-related sickness separately
- ✓Use review triggers to start a fair conversation—not automatic discipline
- ✓Continue holiday and final-pay checks where employment ends
9. Keep the decision chain
- ✓Sickness dates and qualifying-day pattern
- ✓AWE calculation and relevant-period evidence
- ✓SSP and company-pay calculations
- ✓Linked-period history
- ✓Self-certification and fit-note status
- ✓Employee communications
- ✓Affected visits and rota changes
- ✓Cover and escalation decisions
- ✓Return-to-work discussion
- ✓Reasonable-adjustment decisions
- ✓SSP1 evidence where required
Related Workmax resources
Reviewed 28 July 2026 for employers in England. Check current HMRC, GOV.UK, ACAS and CQC guidance for case-specific changes.
HMRC SSP calculations · Adult social-care infection control · ACAS absence trigger points