{"id":28703,"date":"2025-05-13T09:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smh.group\/?p=28703"},"modified":"2025-05-13T09:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:35:13","slug":"changes-to-statutory-sick-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/changes-to-statutory-sick-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to Statutory Sick Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Proposed changes to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will introduce entitlement from the first day of sickness and remove the lower earnings threshold. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The changes are part of the Employment Rights Bill, currently progressing through parliament. While the new rules are not expected to take effect until autumn 2025, at the earliest, employers should start revising their policies to be ready.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike other statutory payments, SSP is not recoverable from HMRC. Therefore, the cost is fully borne by employers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Day one right<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Employees are not currently entitled to SSP until the fourth day of absence. This three-day waiting period is to be removed, so an employee will be entitled to receive SSP from day one of sickness. This will mean:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many employees will no longer have to choose between going to work when unwell or not getting paid.<\/li>\n<li>However, employers could be impacted by increased absences and a loss of productivity.<\/li>\n<li>Employers will also face an extra cost. Under the existing rules, an employee on a week\u2019s sick leave receives SSP of \u00a347.50. The amount payable under the new rules will be \u00a3118.75 (the weekly amount of SSP for 2025\/26).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Employers could see a rise in sick leave abuse, which will require careful handling. Approaches to reducing abuse include asking employees to check in regularly when off sick, and holding return-to-work interviews.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lower earning threshold<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To qualify for SSP, there is currently an earnings threshold of \u00a3125 per week. When this threshold is removed, employees off sick will receive the lower rate of SSP and 80% of their average weekly earnings. Although a small number of employees will receive less SSP per day as a result of this change (those earning between \u00a3125 and \u00a3148), they will benefit from more qualifying days.<\/p>\n<p>The Government\u2019s factsheet on the removal of the lower earnings threshold can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/6809098f0324470d6a394f33\/statutory-sick-pay-lower-earnings-limit-removal-structure.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more information,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/contact\/\"><strong>contact us<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0on\u00a00114 266 4432\u00a0or email\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"mailto:info@smh.group\"><strong>info@smh.group.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proposed changes to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will introduce entitlement from the first day of sickness and remove the lower earnings threshold. The changes are part of the Employment Rights Bill, currently progressing through parliament. While the new rules are not expected to take effect until autumn 2025, at the earliest, employers should start revising their policies to be ready. Unlike other statutory payments, SSP is not recoverable from HMRC. Therefore, the cost is fully borne by employers. Day one right Employees are not currently entitled to SSP until the fourth day of absence. This three-day waiting period is to be removed, so an employee will be entitled to receive SSP from day one of sickness. This will mean: Many employees will no longer have to choose between going to work when unwell or not getting paid. However, employers could be impacted by increased absences and a loss of productivity. Employers will also face an extra cost. Under the existing rules, an employee on a week\u2019s sick leave receives SSP of \u00a347.50. The amount payable under the new rules will be \u00a3118.75 (the weekly amount of SSP for 2025\/26). Employers could see a rise in sick leave abuse, which will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[500,528],"class_list":["post-28703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smh-accounting-business-advisory","tag-ssp","tag-statutory-sick-pay"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Changes to Statutory Sick Pay - SMH Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Proposed changes to Statutory Sick Pay will introduce entitlement from the first day of sickness and remove the lower earnings threshold.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Changes to Statutory Sick Pay - 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