Plan statutory sick pay, reduced pay periods, employer sick pay, salary impact, and monthly budget changes.
Use this page to model how statutory sick pay could affect take-home pay and monthly budgeting. For 2026/27, SSP is estimated at £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings if lower, with the post-6 April 2026 first-full-day rule caveated.
Enter your salary and how long you expect to be off. The gap is what SSP does not cover.
From 6 April 2026, SSP is payable from the first full day of sickness absence for eligible employees. SSP replaces about 18% of your normal gross pay. Many contracts pay more than the statutory minimum — check yours before planning around this.
2026/27 rates, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no student loan. Open the full calculator to change region, student loan or pension method.
Payslip showing different figures? The payslip checker works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and shows which assumption could explain the gap.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from sick pay impact, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
Each row uses the same statutory sick pay rule as above, at average weekly earnings high enough for the standard rate and with five qualifying days a week. The daily figure is the weekly figure divided across those qualifying days, which is how a part-week absence is actually paid.
| Time off sick | Average weekly earnings | A week | A qualifying day | Paid qualifying days | Total across the period |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One week | £500.00 | £123.25 | £24.65 | 5 | £123.25 |
| 2 weeks | £500.00 | £123.25 | £24.65 | 10 | £246.50 |
| 4 weeks | £500.00 | £123.25 | £24.65 | 20 | £493.00 |
The sick-pay tool uses shared statutory-pay rules, average weekly earnings and qualifying days to estimate the statutory sick pay period.
This is a planning estimate only. It does not decide legal entitlement, employer compliance, payroll correctness, or whether a payment must be made.
This estimate is worked out on £35,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
It uses the shared 2026/27 SSP rule: £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings if lower, divided across the qualifying days entered.
No. It is a planning estimate only. SSP can depend on average weekly earnings, qualifying days, linked sickness periods, sickness dates and employer payroll rules.
Only if you model it as a custom reduced-pay period. PayBreakdown does not decide employer scheme rules or what an employer must pay.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.