27/05/2026
Since April, sick pay is payable from day one and the lower earnings limit has been removed.
Have you updated your processes to reflect this?
For most small businesses, this means more people qualify for SSP and the cost starts sooner. If short-term absence is already something you deal with regularly, this change hits harder than it looks on paper.
Here's what to check now:
💷 Payroll setup
Make sure that your system reflects the removal of waiting days and the earnings threshold.
If it hasn't been updated, you could be underpaying or overpaying without knowing it.
📄 Your sickness absence policy
If it still references waiting days or a minimum earnings limit, it's out of date. Your managers and employees need to be working from the same current version.
🔄 Return-to-work conversations
A short, consistent check-in after every absence is one of the simplest tools you have. It doesn't need to be formal. It just needs to happen every time.
📊 Attendance tracking
You can't manage what you don't measure. If you're not recording absence consistently, you won't spot patterns until they've already become costly.
🗣️ Manager confidence
Your managers are the first to notice when absence increases. Make sure that they know how to have early conversations without avoiding them or escalating too quickly.
The changes aren't dramatic on their own, but if your processes haven't caught up, the costs add up quietly.
If you want to sense-check where your absence management sits right now, drop a comment or send us a message.
