Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in AccBooks AI

What is Statutory Sick Pay?

SSP is the minimum amount employers must pay employees who are absent from work due to illness. The current rate is £116.75 per week (2026/27) and is paid for up to 28 weeks.

Qualifying conditions

To qualify for SSP, an employee must:

• Be classed as an employee (not a worker or self-employed contractor).
• Have been ill for at least 4 consecutive days (including non-working days).
• Earn at least the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) — currently £123/week.

The first 3 days of sickness are waiting days — SSP is not paid for these. SSP starts from the 4th day.

Note: Many employers choose to pay more than SSP under an occupational sick pay policy. If you have such a policy, enter the enhanced amount in AccBooks — but SSP is the minimum floor.

Recording sick leave in AccBooks

1. Go to Payroll → Employees → [employee name].
2. Click the Absence tab.
3. Click Record absence.
4. Select Sickness as the absence type.
5. Enter the first day of sickness and last day (or leave open if ongoing).
6. AccBooks calculates qualifying days, waiting days and SSP entitlement automatically.

Qualifying days

SSP is calculated based on qualifying days — the days the employee normally works. AccBooks uses the employee’s contracted working days (set under Employee → Working pattern).

Example: An employee works Monday to Friday. They’re sick from Wednesday 5th to Tuesday 11th (7 calendar days). Qualifying days: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday = 5 qualifying days. Waiting days: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday = 3. SSP days paid = Monday and Tuesday = 2 days.

SSP per day = £116.75 ÷ number of contracted qualifying days per week.

Including SSP in payroll

When you run payroll for a period that contains sickness:

1. The SSP amount appears automatically under Statutory payments in the payroll run.
2. If your employee is also receiving contractual sick pay that’s higher, add the top-up as a separate earnings line.
3. AccBooks includes SSP in the FPS submission to HMRC.

Self-certification and fit notes

For absences of 7 days or fewer, employees self-certify using AccBooks’ employee portal. For absences over 7 days, a fit note (sick note) from a GP or hospital is required. Upload the fit note to the employee’s absence record.

Linked periods of incapacity

If an employee has two or more periods of sickness within 8 weeks (56 days), they’re treated as a single Period of Incapacity for Work (PIW) — only one set of 3 waiting days applies across the whole PIW. AccBooks tracks linked periods automatically.

When SSP ends

SSP stops when:

• The employee returns to work.
• 28 weeks of SSP have been paid.
• The employee’s employment ends.

When SSP ends after 28 weeks, AccBooks automatically generates an SSP1 form to help the employee claim Employment and Support Allowance from DWP.

Employer recovery

Employers can no longer reclaim SSP from HMRC (this scheme ended in 2014). SSP is a business cost that you post to Wages (code 7000) in AccBooks.