Statutory Sick Pay Changes from April 2026

Eligibility: Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW)
Employees are eligible for SSP from the first qualifying day of sickness. The definition of a PIW has changed from 4 calendar days to a single calendar day for absences on or after 6 April 2026.

  • The check for PIW of 1 calendar day will be applied to absence on or after 6 April 2026. This also applies automatically to ongoing absences that started before 6 April 2026 as well.
    • There is no need to end and create a new absence where an employee has an ongoing.
  • There is no concept of waiting days from 6 April 2026.
  • Employees will be paid only for their scheduled qualifying days.

Payment Calculation: 80% of AWE vs Weekly SSP Rate
SSP pay is determined as the lower of 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings (AWE) and the statutory weekly SSP rate for absences on or after 6 April 2026.

  • Calculate 80% of AWE and compare to the statutory weekly SSP rate; pay the lower amount.
  • Round 80% of AWE up to the next penny before comparison.
  • If AWE is not available, administrators can enter an Override Average Weekly Earnings value to perform the comparison.

Linking Absences and Transitional Arrangements
Absences that begin within 56 days of a previous absence continue to be linked. Transitional rules apply where linked absences span the 2026 tax-year change to ensure employees are not disadvantaged.

  • Absences starting within 56 days of a previous absence remain linked and use the AWE from the first linked absence to calculate 80% AWE.
  • When a sickness spans the tax year boundary, the eligibility is assessed using the new one-day PIW rule for absence days from the transitional date of 6-April 2026. 
    • Transitional protection may apply to the rate paid so employees do not receive lower pay due to the change.
    • No further waiting days will apply and, where the employee was previously excluded from payment of SSP due to AWE not reaching LEL, then payment will begin from 6 April at 80% of AWE 
  • If a new sickness starts after the earlier sickness has ended and the employee returned to work, transitional protection does not apply — new rules apply.

Scope and Supported Configurations
The legislative changes are supported only for customers using the case-based absence solution. Customers using the legacy absence formula solution must handle the legislative changes manually.

  • Case-based absence processing will apply the 2026/27 SSP rules automatically.
  • Absence Formula solution is not supported for these legislative changes — customers must manually apply linking, PIW and payment rules if they remain on that solution.
  • Documentation will explicitly state support is limited to case-based absences.

Certifications, Messages and Exceptions
Certain existing certifications and error messages are updated or removed because waiting-day and PIW rules have changed.

  • Certificate logic that checked for absences less than 4 days is updated to check for 1 full calendar day.
  • Messages and payment-stop reasons that referenced waiting days or the four-day PIW are removed or revised.
  • Pregnancy-related sickness still triggers guidance to consider Statutory Maternity Pay where applicable.

From 6 April 2026 changes to statutory sick pay (SSP) come into effect and Oracle Fusion HCM (UK) will be legislatively complaint. 

Steps to enable and configure

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips and considerations

These changes apply only to absences on or after 6 April 2026; absences before that date will be subject to new rules or transitional arrangements for open absences.

  • There is no longer a concept  of waiting days from 6 April 2026 onwards; do not block payment for earlier 'waiting days'.
  • When absences are linked, use the AWE from the first linked absence to calculate 80% AWE for the whole linked period.
  • Transitional protection ensures employees are not worse off at the tax-year boundary; review cross-year sickness periods to confirm correct rates are applied.
  • Override AWE should only be used when no AWE can be derived; overrides do not affect absences before 6 April 2026.
  • Customers on the absence formula solution must manually handle linking, PIW and payment calculations after 6 April 2026.

Key resources

  • UK absences documentation (public): No public-facing resources available.
  • Original SSP functional design and legislative references (internal): No public-facing resources available.
  • Legislative requirement / review (internal): No public-facing resources available.

Access requirements

All setup gating, configuration-derived privilege, and required roles: No explicit role names or tokens are provided in the source JSON. Users must follow their organization's administrator provisioning for absence and payroll configuration in Oracle Fusion HCM.