9 Days: The Sick Pay Law That Will Cost Care Businesses £15,000 Extra Per Year

Published: 28 March 2026
URL slug: /blog/ssp-day-one-care-sector-april-2026
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Category: Employment Law, Healthcare Compliance
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In nine days, a law that has stood since 1983 changes forever.

From April 6, Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first day of illness. The three-day waiting period — the rule that meant an employee had to be sick for three days before they received a penny of SSP — is gone. Permanently.

For most businesses, this is a significant change. For care homes and domiciliary care agencies, it is a direct and immediate hit to payroll that most have not yet calculated.

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What "Day One SSP" Actually Means

Under the old system (in force since the SSP scheme launched in 1983), an employee had to be ill for at least three consecutive days before they became entitled to Statutory Sick Pay. Those first three days — called "waiting days" — cost the employer nothing in SSP, even if they paid contractual sick pay.

From April 6, that changes. Day one of illness is now a qualifying day. An employee calls in sick on a Monday, they are entitled to SSP from that Monday.

The current SSP rate is £116.75 per week. For a business with a high volume of short-term absences — which describes almost every care home and domiciliary agency in the country — the cumulative cost of eliminating the three-day wait is not trivial.

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Who Is Most Exposed: The Care Sector

The care sector faces a compounding problem that most other industries do not.

High absence rates. Adult social care has consistently higher sickness absence rates than the UK average. The NHS reports care sector sickness rates running at 5–7% — double the all-sector average of around 2.5%.

Low wages, newly eligible workers. SSP is only payable to employees earning above the Lower Earnings Limit (currently £123/week). A significant proportion of care workers — particularly part-time domiciliary carers working variable hours — were previously below this threshold and therefore not entitled to SSP at all.

The Employment Rights Act 2025, which brings in day-one SSP, also changes the eligibility rules. Workers previously excluded due to earnings levels are now brought into the scheme. Estimates from care sector bodies suggest between 1.3 and 2 million workers across the UK who previously received no SSP are now eligible from April 6.

High turnover, short-term contracts. Many care workers are on zero-hours or variable-hours contracts. Under the old system, many short absences never triggered SSP because of the waiting period. Under the new system, every absence from day one counts.

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The Real Numbers: What April 6 Costs a 50-Staff Care Home

The care sector has done its own modelling. Industry bodies estimate that the removal of waiting days, combined with the expansion of eligibility, will add 1–2% to payroll costs for a typical care home.

For a 50-staff residential care home or domiciliary agency:

• Average care worker salary (full-time equivalent): approximately £22,000–£25,000/year
• Total payroll: approximately £1.1M–£1.25M per year
• 1% additional cost: £11,000–£12,500/year
• 2% additional cost: £22,000–£25,000/year

A realistic estimate for a 50-staff care business is £15,000–£25,000 in additional mandatory SSP costs per year. This is not a rough guess — it is a conservative industry-calibrated figure.

Most care businesses have not budgeted for this. The change has received almost no mainstream coverage outside HR trade publications. Many operators will discover the cost in their April payroll run.

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Also From April 6: Paternity Leave Becomes a Day-One Right

This is getting even less attention than SSP, but it is equally significant for care employers.

Until April 5, employees needed 26 weeks of continuous service before they qualified for statutory paternity leave. From April 6, paternity leave is a day-one right. An employee who joined your care home in February and whose partner gives birth in April now has full statutory paternity leave entitlement.

For the care sector — which employs a disproportionately young workforce with high birth rates — this is a real operational change. Absence planning needs to be updated.

The right also extends: employees can now take their two weeks of paternity leave in non-consecutive blocks within 52 weeks of the birth, rather than as a single block within 8 weeks.

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The Enforcer Launches the Next Day

The Fair Work Agency launches on April 7 — the day after these changes come into force.

This is not a coincidence. The FWA is a new government enforcement body that consolidates the functions of HMRC's National Minimum Wage enforcement team, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.

Critically, SSP enforcement is a primary FWA mandate. The FWA has statutory powers to inspect workroll records, issue compliance notices, require back-payment, and refer cases for criminal prosecution.

The FWA has named healthcare and care as a priority enforcement sector. A 50-staff care home that fails to pay day-one SSP from April 6 is not just an employment tribunal risk — it is a direct FWA enforcement risk.

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What You Need to Do Before April 6

1. Update your absence policy. Remove all references to the three-day waiting period. Any written absence policy that still refers to SSP commencing after waiting days is now legally incorrect.

2. Check your payroll system. Your payroll software needs to be configured to apply SSP from day one of qualifying absence. Do not assume your provider has updated the default settings automatically.

3. Recalculate your sickness absence budget. Model the cost of your current sickness absence rates under the new rules. The figure will be higher than you expect.

4. Audit eligibility. Identify workers who were previously below the Lower Earnings Limit and are now eligible for SSP. Brief your line managers.

5. Update paternity leave procedures. Remove the 26-week qualifying requirement from your paternity leave policy and manager guidance.

6. Brief managers before April 6. Every line manager who handles absence needs to know that SSP starts from day one. The FWA will not accept "we didn't know" as mitigation.

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The Free Compliance Calendar

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Tags: SSP, Statutory Sick Pay, Employment Rights Act 2025, Care Homes, Domiciliary Care, Fair Work Agency, April 2026, Healthcare Compliance