Statutory sick pay for UK pub staff in 2026

Last updated: 13 April 2026

Most pub landlords think statutory sick pay (SSP) is straightforward — pay the rate, move on. In reality, getting it wrong costs you thousands in back pay, penalties, and staff relations damage. I’ve seen landlords fail to log SSP properly, trigger unexpected tax bills, and lose good staff because they handled absence badly. This guide covers exactly what you owe, when you owe it, and how to avoid the compliance traps that catch most operators.

What is statutory sick pay?

Statutory sick pay is the legal minimum amount you must pay employees when they cannot work due to genuine illness or injury. It is not optional. Even if you have no formal sick pay scheme, SSP is owed automatically once the eligibility conditions are met.

The key difference between SSP and contractual sick pay is that SSP is the bare legal minimum — you can offer better terms in your employment contract, and many pubs do. But you cannot offer less than SSP without breaking employment law.

Many pub landlords confuse SSP with Statutory Sick Pay Scheme (which you can operate), but the obligation is separate from any scheme you choose to run. If you operate a contractual scheme with better terms, that scheme replaces SSP — but you still need to understand the SSP baseline to know your true obligation.

Who qualifies for statutory sick pay

Not every employee who calls in sick is entitled to SSP. There are strict eligibility requirements, and I’ve seen pub landlords overpay staff who technically don’t qualify yet.

Eligibility thresholds

• Continuous employment of at least 13 weeks: Casual bar staff or kitchen porters brought in for a specific week do not qualify. Running a quiz night at Teal Farm Pub with temporary volunteers means those people are not entitled to SSP, but a regular bar team member on an ongoing contract is.
• Minimum earnings of £123 per week on average: This is the National Insurance threshold for 2026. If someone is employed but earns below this threshold (rare in pubs but possible with ultra-part-time hours), they are not entitled to SSP. Use the 8-week reference period before sickness starts to calculate average pay.
• Three consecutive calendar days of incapacity: SSP is not payable for the first three days of sickness (the “waiting period”). From day four onwards, if the employee is still unfit for work, SSP becomes due. This is a common source of misunderstanding — landlords often think SSP starts on day one.
• Not in receipt of other statutory benefits: If an employee is already receiving Statutory Maternity Allowance, Statutory Adoption Pay, or certain other benefits, they cannot claim SSP. This is rare but relevant for larger pubs with higher staff turnover.

There is one exception worth noting: the employee must inform you that they are unfit for work using your agreed notification procedure. If they don’t follow your absence notification process, you can withhold SSP until they do. This is not about being harsh — it’s about ensuring you can manage the rota and manage the sickness properly.

Current SSP rates and calculation in 2026

The statutory sick pay rate from April 2026 is £116.00 per week. This is the fixed weekly rate, regardless of how much the employee normally earns. If someone earns £400 per week or £200 per week, SSP is still £116.00.

This flat rate structure is one reason some landlords prefer contractual sick pay schemes — you can tie it to actual salary, which feels fairer to higher-earning team members.

How to calculate daily SSP

SSP is paid weekly, but for partial weeks or to understand the daily amount:

Weekly rate ÷ normal working days per week = daily SSP rate

If an employee normally works 5 days per week, that’s £116.00 ÷ 5 = £23.20 per day. If they work 6 days, it’s £116.00 ÷ 6 = £19.33 per day.

In practice, you will pay SSP for whole weeks. If someone is ill Monday to Wednesday in their first week back, and Thursday onwards they return, you don’t pay SSP at all (because it’s not yet the fourth consecutive day). This trips up a lot of new managers.

Maximum duration

SSP is payable for a maximum of 28 weeks per “period of incapacity for work.” After that, the employee must claim Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from the Department for Work and Pensions. Long-term sickness in a pub is rare but relevant if someone is seriously ill or injured.

Notice requirements and procedures

Your absence management process must be clear, fair, and documented. Here’s what you need in place:

Employee notification requirements

Your sickness policy should specify:

• By what time the employee must notify you (most pubs use “as soon as practicable, ideally before their shift starts”)
• Who to contact (the manager, duty manager, or a designated phone line)
• Whether they need to provide a fit note (doctor’s certificate) — this is typically required after three consecutive days or a total of seven days in a rolling 12-month period
• How long absence can continue without medical evidence

You have the legal right to require a fit note from the fourth day of sickness onwards. Many landlords wait too long to ask for medical evidence, which then complicates SSP verification later.

Your SSP notification obligation

You must inform the employee:

• Whether SSP is payable (this should be confirmed in writing within the first pay period)
• The amount and dates of payment
• Why SSP is not payable, if that’s the case (e.g., they haven’t yet completed 13 weeks employment)

Many pubs skip this step and just adjust the payslip — that’s a mistake. A brief message or payslip note saying “SSP payable from Day 4, £116.00 per week” takes 30 seconds and prevents disputes later.

Common SSP mistakes pub landlords make

These are the errors I see most often, and they cost real money:

Paying SSP for the first three days

The three-day waiting period is non-negotiable. You cannot pay SSP for days 1–3, even if your gut says it’s the right thing. If you choose to pay as a gesture of goodwill, it must come from your own pocket as discretionary pay, not as SSP. Mark it clearly on the payslip to avoid confusion later.

Failing to check the 13-week rule

A new starter calls in sick on Week 10. You pay SSP. Six months later, HMRC queries it during a payroll audit. You owe it back. Maintain a simple spreadsheet with employment start dates so you can verify eligibility instantly.

Not keeping fit notes or absence records

HMRC can request records of any SSP payment for up to four years. If you cannot produce a fit note, a clear notification record, or the calculation showing why SSP was paid, you may face penalties. This is especially critical if you manage pub staffing cost calculator across multiple team members in a busy environment like Teal Farm Pub, where we run wet sales, dry sales, quiz nights, and match day events with 17 FOH and kitchen staff simultaneously.

Deducting SSP without a policy

If your employment contract or staff handbook says SSP is deducted from contractual sick pay (a common practice), that’s fine. But you must have this in writing before the employee takes sick leave, not after. If there’s no written policy and you deduct, it looks arbitrary and damages trust with your team.

Confusing SSP with normal pay deductions

SSP is not subject to National Insurance deductions on the employer side — but the employee’s normal tax and National Insurance are still withheld. Make sure your payroll system applies the correct tax treatment. Many smaller pubs using manual payroll get this wrong.

Not updating records when staff move to contracted sick pay

If you offer a staff member better contractual sick pay (e.g., full pay for first week, then SSP rate), you must document the transition clearly. Otherwise, if the employee disputes the amount later, you have no evidence of what was agreed.

Integrating SSP with your payroll

If you’re still calculating SSP manually, stop. The risk of error scales with team size, and the cost of getting it wrong for 17 staff members is material.

Using payroll software

Most UK payroll platforms (Xero, Sage, Paycircle, Wagepoint) have SSP built in. You enter the absence dates, the software calculates the waiting period, checks eligibility, and applies the correct rate. It also generates the payslip notes and keeps audit trails.

When selecting pub IT solutions guide, ensure your payroll system integrates with your EPOS or absence management tool so data flows directly rather than being re-entered manually.

Absence tracking and notification

Use a single system to log all absences, the reason (sickness, personal, holiday), and whether fit notes were provided. This becomes your evidence trail. If someone disputes an SSP payment, you can pull the absence log, the fit note, and the calculation in seconds.

At Teal Farm Pub, when we evaluated scheduling systems for managing absence across FOH and kitchen staff, the test was whether the system could tag sickness absence separately from other leave, alert when fit notes were due, and flag when the 13-week eligibility threshold was approaching for new starters. Most systems miss this; the good ones don’t.

Communication to staff

Include a clear SSP section in your staff handbook. Explain:

• The three-day waiting period
• How to notify you of sickness
• When fit notes are needed
• The current SSP rate
• How SSP appears on their payslip

This prevents misunderstandings and shows you’re transparent. When team members understand the rules, compliance becomes easier and disputes drop.

Tax reporting

SSP is reported to HMRC through your Real Time Information (RTI) submission on each payroll run. Your payroll software does this automatically. Do not manually adjust the payslip without updating RTI — this creates a mismatch that triggers HMRC compliance queries.

If you use pub management software that connects to your payroll platform, SSP data flows through automatically and is reported correctly. If you’re using disconnected systems (separate EPOS, separate payroll, separate absence log), the manual handoff is where errors happen.

Frequently Asked Questions

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