Your Sick Pay Rights Are About to Change: What the Employment Rights Act Means If You’re Injured at Work
By Chris Carter, Managing Solicitor · Carter & Carter Solicitors · 8 March 2026
Quick Answer: Does the 6 April 2026 Law Change Affect You?
Yes. From 6 April 2026, if you are injured at work and signed off sick, you are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay from your very first day off work. The previous three-day waiting period is abolished by the Employment Rights Act 2025. Workers previously excluded because they earned below the threshold now qualify too.
SSP rate from 6 April 2026: £123.25/week | Waiting period: abolished | Workers newly eligible: 1.3 million | Separate injury compensation: still fully claimable
Most people who suffer a workplace accident ask the same question almost immediately: Am I going to get paid while I’m off?
For years, the honest answer has come with a frustrating catch. Technically yes — but not for the first three days. Under the rules that have been in force for decades, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) only kicked in on day four of any period of sickness absence.
That all changes on 6 April 2026.
Those first three days were classified as “waiting days.” They were your financial problem to absorb — at exactly the point when your injury was fresh, your medical appointments were starting, and your wages had just stopped.
For lower-paid workers, agency staff, and anyone on part-time or zero-hours contracts, it was often worse: if your average weekly earnings fell below the Lower Earnings Limit — currently £125 — you didn’t qualify for SSP at all.
What Does the Employment Rights Act 2025 Change — and When Does It Take Effect?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 — the most significant reform to employment law in over a decade. Its provisions are being introduced in phases, and the first major wave lands on 6 April 2026.
Three concrete changes affect every worker injured at work:
The three-day waiting period is abolished. From 6 April, SSP is payable from the first full day you cannot work. There are no waiting days. If you are signed off on a Monday, SSP begins on Monday.
The earnings threshold is removed. The Lower Earnings Limit, which will rise to £129/week in April 2026, is scrapped entirely. An estimated 1.3 million workers — many of them part-time, casual, or on zero-hours contracts — who previously earned too little to qualify will now receive SSP for the first time.
The weekly rate rises to £123.25. If your normal weekly pay is lower than the flat rate, you receive the lower of the statutory rate or 80% of your average weekly earnings — protecting lower earners from receiving more through SSP than they would have earned working.
“The three-day wait has always felt like a penalty for getting hurt at work — you’re already dealing with an injury, and then the law says you lose three days’ income before any support kicks in. From April, that’s gone. And for lower-paid workers who’ve never qualified at all, this is a significant shift.”
Chris Carter, Managing Solicitor, Carter & Carter Solicitors
What Does This Mean If You’ve Been Injured at Work?
The SSP changes matter to workplace accident claims in a specific and practical way. The days and weeks immediately after an injury — when you are signed off, unable to work, and beginning to understand the full extent of your injuries — are also when financial pressure builds fastest. Under the new rules, employers who have previously pointed to the waiting period as a reason not to pay from day one will no longer have that option.
New from April 2026: The Fair Work Agency (FWA) will have statutory powers to investigate employers who fail to pay SSP correctly — and to take enforcement action on workers’ behalf.
It is also important to understand what SSP is not. It is a minimum floor, not a cap on what you can recover. If your employer has a company sick pay scheme that is more generous, that applies instead. And SSP does not limit a personal injury claim — any earnings lost above and beyond what SSP covered remain fully recoverable as part of your compensation.
❌ The Rule Before 6 April 2026
Three waiting days. SSP only began on day four of sickness absence. The first three days off work — for any reason, including a workplace injury — carried no statutory sick pay entitlement whatsoever.
Earnings threshold. Workers earning below £125/week (rising to £129 in April 2026) did not qualify for SSP at all — locking out an estimated 1.3 million of the lowest-paid workers in the country.
✅ The Rule From 6 April 2026
Day one. SSP is payable from the first full day you cannot work due to illness or injury. No waiting. No three-day gap. Immediate entitlement from the day you are signed off.
No earnings bar. The Lower Earnings Limit is removed. All eligible employees qualify regardless of income. The weekly rate is £123.25 — or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower for those earning less than the flat rate.
⚡ Workers Who Benefit Most
The changes are most significant for workers who previously fell through the gaps entirely:
- Part-time workers earning below the old threshold — now fully eligible
- Zero-hours contract workers — variable earnings no longer exclude you
- Agency workers — the removal of the earnings limit applies to them too
- Anyone injured in their first weeks of employment — day-one entitlement means there is no qualifying period to meet for SSP
- Workers with short-term injuries — under the old rules, a three-day injury resulted in zero SSP; now every qualifying day counts
🔵 What If Your Employer Doesn’t Pay?
From April 2026, enforcement of SSP moves to the new Fair Work Agency (FWA). If your employer refuses or fails to pay SSP from day one, you can report this to the FWA, which has statutory powers to investigate and recover unpaid SSP.
Separately — and importantly — if you have been injured at work through your employer’s negligence, the failure to pay correct SSP is a further indication of how your employer has treated you. The personal injury claim process and the SSP enforcement process are independent routes and can be pursued simultaneously. If you are unsure whether you are receiving what you are legally owed, speak to us.
📊 The Employment Rights Act 2025 — Key Numbers
6 Apr 2026
Date the changes take effect — day-one SSP begins
1.3M
Additional workers newly eligible for SSP under the Employment Rights Act 2025
£123.25
New weekly SSP flat rate from April 2026 (up from £118.75)
0 days
Waiting period from 6 April 2026 — the three-day gap is gone
Is Statutory Sick Pay the Same as Compensation for a Workplace Injury?
SSP and workplace injury compensation are entirely separate — and understanding why that matters. SSP is your statutory minimum entitlement from your employer while you are off sick — paid by them, enforced by the Fair Work Agency. A personal injury compensation claim is an entirely different legal process, handled by solicitors, and can recover your full financial losses including everything above and beyond what SSP covered.
If you have been injured at work, the fact that SSP is now payable from day one does not reduce or limit what you can claim in compensation. The two routes work in parallel. SSP is the floor. Compensation addresses the ceiling — and there is no cap on what you can recover if your employer’s negligence caused your injury.
If you are off work injured right now, or were injured before 6 April 2026 under the old rules, the time limit on personal injury claims is three years from the date of your accident. We can advise you on both your immediate entitlements and your longer-term compensation rights in a single conversation.
Injured at Work? Let’s Talk About Your Rights.
Speak directly with Chris or David — not a call centre, not a junior. Just expert help with your claim from start to finish.
No Win No Fee · Accident at work specialists since 2007 · Free initial advice
Chris Carter
Managing Solicitor, Carter & Carter Solicitors
Specialist personal injury solicitor since 2007. Chris handles every accident at work claim personally — no handoffs, no juniors. Based in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, serving clients across the UK on a No Win No Fee basis.