SSP is £123.25 a week or 80% of your normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks.
Reference notes for the UK tax year 2026/27, computed from HMRC's published rates rather than copied from another site.
Two changes make older guidance wrong.
The 80% cap. SSP is now the lower of £123.25 and 80% of normal weekly earnings. The cap bites below roughly £8,011 of annual salary, where 80% of earnings is less than the flat rate.
Waiting days are abolished. The three unpaid days at the start are gone. Eligibility now begins if you are ill for at least one full working day.
On a £30,000 salary, normal weekly pay is about £576.92 and SSP is £123.25, a drop of about £453.67 a week.
Contractual sick pay is often far better and replaces SSP. SSP stops after 28 weeks, at which point Employment and Support Allowance is the next step.
Statutory Sick Pay Calculator UK →
Free, no sign-up, runs in your browser. Your figures are never sent anywhere.
Full deduction breakdowns, computed on 2026/27 rates:
| Salary | Take-home a year | Take-home a month |
|---|---|---|
| £25,000 after tax | £21,519.60 | £1,793.30 |
| £35,000 after tax | £28,719.60 | £2,393.30 |
| £50,000 after tax | £39,519.60 | £3,293.30 |
| £60,000 after tax | £45,357.40 | £3,779.78 |
- Maternity pay calculator — the other statutory payment, week by week
- Payslip checker — check how the sick period was paid
- Income tax calculator — tax still applies to statutory pay
- UK tax rates and thresholds 2026/27 — every band and threshold on one page
- Take-home pay statistics — effective and marginal rates from £20,000 to £200,000, free to cite
- How the calculator works — the order of calculation and the source for every rate
- rates.json — the same figures as machine-readable JSON, no key required
- Maternity Pay Calculator UK
- Marriage Allowance Calculator UK
- Child Benefit Calculator UK
- Tax-Free Childcare Calculator UK
Full index: UK Tax & Take-Home Pay Guide — twelve guides, twelve worked salary examples and a reference table covering the whole UK system.
Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year, which runs 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, and were checked against gov.uk on 28 August 2026.
Rates change every April, and often at a Budget. Check the tax year a figure belongs to before relying on it.
Found a wrong number? Open an issue with the figure and a gov.uk link. Tax errors are worth fixing quickly.
CC BY 4.0. Use it, quote it, fork it.