Sick pay from day one
- 6 October 2026
- Amy at pirkx
-
3 minutes read
Sick pay from day one
New employment law changes
If you’re a small business or take care of HR yourself, you probably know the feeling: you’ve just got your head around one change and another one hits.
This year’s a big one. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is payable from the first day of sickness absence, with waiting days and the lower earnings limit removed from 6 April 2026. Further phased-in employment law changes through October 2026 and into 2027 include longer tribunal time limits for most claims.
The information in this post is general and does not constitute legal advice. Check gov.uk or ACAS for the detail.
Why does it matter for small teams?
In a big company you normally have an HR team, a policy specialist and someone who is just responsible for absence management. In a small business it’s often one person who does payroll, people, admin and a little of everything else.
So a day off now matters more than it did. If short absences are costly, it is worth having clear records, an up to date sickness policy and managers who can handle the conversation.
Policies help. Support helps too.
The first step makes sense, getting your paperwork in order. But policy only deals with what happens once someone is off sick.
The other side is what happens before: if your team gets help early on, not waiting until a small problem becomes a larger one.
Imagine you are a staff member:
Seeing a GP can involve days of waiting and taking time off work for an appointment. Stress and low mood often go unnoticed until they are impossible to ignore. The flu jab or a quick health check always feels like something for next week. Easier access to support doesn’t mean no one will ever get sick, and we would never promise that. But it can help people to look
A few practical things to do now
- Check your sickness absence policy. Does it reflect the new SSP rules? Old handbooks may still refer to waiting days.
- Keep clear, consistent records. Good notes make everyone's life easier.
- Brief your managers. They're usually the first people to hear when someone's unwell, so they should know what to say and who to tell.
- Look at what support your team can actually reach. A policy on paper is one thing. A GP they can see at 9pm on a Sunday is another.
Employment law will keep changing, and for small teams that can feel like a lot to carry, but you don’t need to have everything figured out overnight. Start with your policy and your records, then think about what support your people can reach when they need it. Small steps now make winter easier for everyone. If you'd like to see what pirkx could look like for your team, message us and we'll talk it through.
- Amy
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