From 6 April this year, the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rules are changing.
The main changes are:
- You’ll need to pay SSP from the first day of absence
- There are no ‘waiting days’
- There’s no minimum earning level to qualify (previously it was £129 a week – no longer)
- If they earn under the Lowing Earning Limit, you need to pay them 80% of their average weekly earnings. If they earn more, then it’s £123.25.
All financial details should be handled by your payroll software, which should automatically pay staff the correct amount.
How employees report and certify sickness
For their first seven calendar days of absence, they can self-certify.
After that point, they need to provide you with a Fit Note to cover their absence.
No Fit Note, no pay – one hard and fast rule that says you won’t pay until a Note gets to your inbox, into your hands, will make it clear you’re serious about enacting the policy properly.
Big change – logging ALL sickness absence
All the above might be fairly familiar to you, but there is a big change you definitely need to put into practice: logging all sickness absence, of all staff, no matter what type of contract they’re on.
Each absence should also be put on payroll to ensure you have a clear record of it.
This is critical for (at least) two reasons:
1. It has become a dangerous practice in some clubs not to log zero-hours absences because they were all unpaid, but you need a record of WHY they were off, and whether it has anything to do with the working environment – this will help prevent claims going forward.
- At the other end of the spectrum, some staff have been paid full pay for sickness (despite only having SSP in their contracts), because their line manager forgot to inform payroll staff they were off.
Oh, and one last thing – logging holiday and sickness absence should NOT be on a whiteboard in the greenkeepers’ hut.
It is 2026, people, there are many apps out there, easy to set up and use, to log and keep an eye on absence.
We use The Holiday Tracker, which is great for smaller organisations. Whichever app you use, please use one. Wall charts and Excel sheets are no longer acceptable.
