SSP Calculator

The SSP calculator works out Statutory Sick Pay for absent employees. It uses the UK rules that took effect on 6 April 2026 and calculates SSP from each employee's earnings and working pattern. It is part of the Log Absence and Edit Absence forms, so you work SSP out at the same time as you record the sickness (see Using the SSP Calculator).

April 2026 SSP Rules

The SSP rules that took effect in April 2026 introduced significant changes from previous years:

Rule	Detail
Weekly SSP rate	The lesser of 80% of Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) or the £123.25 weekly cap
Daily SSP rate	Weekly SSP ÷ number of qualifying days in the week
Waiting days	None - SSP is payable from day 1 of absence
Lower earnings limit	Removed - all employees are now eligible regardless of earnings
Maximum	28 weeks of SSP, shared by periods of sickness 8 weeks or less apart (see The 28-Week Maximum and Linked Sickness)

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The removal of waiting days and the lower earnings limit means all employees are now entitled to SSP from their first day of sickness absence, regardless of how much they earn. This is a significant change from previous rules where low-paid workers could fall through the gaps.

Sickness before 6 April 2026

StaffBrik only works out SSP under the new rules. If any qualifying day of an absence falls before 6 April 2026, or the sickness links to sickness that began before then, StaffBrik does not calculate it. The SSP panel says Enter this SSP manually, and nothing is added to the rota for that absence. Work the figure out under the old rules and enter it in your payroll.

How SSP Is Calculated

Step 1: Determine Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)

AWE is the average of what the employee was paid over HMRC's "relevant period": the earnings paid on their normal pay days in the 8 weeks (or 2 months) up to the last pay day before the sickness started. StaffBrik works it out in this order:

1. Shift history - StaffBrik adds up the employee's shift earnings paid in the relevant period and divides them the way HMRC specifies: by 8 for weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly pay, or by 2 months x 12 / 52 for monthly pay. This is the most accurate method and is used whenever there is enough history. A new starter who has had at least one normal pay day is averaged over the days they have actually been paid for.

2. Contracted hours - if there is not enough shift history, or a new starter has not yet had a normal pay day, StaffBrik calculates AWE from the employee's contracted hours and hourly rate (HMRC's normal contractual earnings rule).

3. Partial shift history - if the employee has no contracted hours either, StaffBrik uses the shift history it does have, and says so (see below).

4. An AWE you enter - when there is no shift history and no contracted hours, the form asks you to enter the employee's Average Weekly Earnings by hand. You can also choose to enter one when StaffBrik warns that its average may be too low.

The average counts what the employee was actually paid for:

• Shifts they were off for are left out. A shift covered by an absence or by time off was not worked, so it does not count.
• Paid holiday and earlier SSP count. Both are earnings, so a week of holiday in the period does not drag the average down.

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For employees with variable hours - which is common in hospitality - the pay-day based shift history gives the most realistic AWE. It captures the actual hours worked, including busy periods and quiet weeks, rather than relying on a contracted figure that may not reflect reality.

When the average may be too low

If the employee has worked for you for longer than the 8 weeks but had shifts in Brikly in fewer than 4 of them (for example because you only started using StaffBrik recently), the breakdown shows an amber note: "Only 3 weeks of the 8 before the sickness had shifts in Brikly, so this average may be too low." Click Enter AWE manually on the note to type in their usual weekly earnings instead.

Setting your pay schedule

The relevant period is anchored on your normal pay days, so StaffBrik needs to know when you pay staff. The StaffBrik onboarding asks for this on the Rates step, and you can set or change it at any time in Staff settings > Pay & Rates > Pay schedule: choose how often you pay (weekly, every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks or monthly), enter any recent normal pay day, and then the last day of work that pay day covered. StaffBrik shows the period that pay day pays for (for example "The pay day on Fri 28 Aug 2026 covers Sat 15 Aug to Fri 21 Aug") so you can check it against a payslip. Paying in arrears (a Friday pay day for the week to the previous Friday) and paying before the period ends (a monthly salary on the 25th for the whole calendar month) are both supported.

Saving or correcting the pay schedule works the average weekly earnings out again for open absences, and for absences in the last 31 days, whose AWE StaffBrik worked out. This happens in the background. An AWE you entered by hand is kept.

For a monthly schedule, the day of the month you enter is kept. A pay day on the 30th stays on the 30th (and falls on the last day of February). A pay day on the 31st reads "paid on the last day of the month", because it moves to the last day of every shorter month.

Until a pay schedule is set, StaffBrik uses the 8 calendar weeks before the first day of sickness instead, and the SSP breakdown says so. The figures are usually close, but only the pay-day version matches HMRC's method exactly. A new starter who joined during those 8 weeks is averaged over the days since they started, not over the full 8 weeks, and the breakdown shows the dates it used.

The relevant period is saved with the SSP calculation, so editing the absence later opens on the same breakdown. When the dates change, StaffBrik recalculates the total: extending the end date keeps the agreed AWE, while moving the first day of sickness works a shift-history or contracted-hours AWE out again from the new date (a manually entered AWE is kept). If the new dates mean SSP can no longer be worked out (for example the absence now starts before 6 April 2026), the old total is cleared rather than kept. Changing the category to one SSP does not apply to removes the saved SSP calculation.

SSP can still be calculated for an employee who has since been archived, so a leaver's last sickness can be settled.

Step 2: Calculate Weekly SSP

Weekly SSP = MIN(80% of AWE, £123.25)

The rate is 80% of the employee's average earnings, but capped at £123.25 per week.

Step 3: Calculate Daily SSP

Daily SSP = Weekly SSP ÷ Qualifying days

Qualifying days are the days the employee would normally work. StaffBrik suggests them from the employee's shift pattern.

When the daily rate is not a whole number of pence, the breakdown shows it to 4 decimal places, the way GOV.UK publishes it (for example £41.0833 for 3 qualifying days). The total for the absence is worked out from that exact rate and rounded up to the penny once, at the end, so a full week always comes to exactly the weekly rate. The breakdown says so: "Rounded up to the penny once, so a full week is exactly the weekly rate."

Qualifying Days Detection

StaffBrik suggests qualifying days from the employee's shifts in the 8 weeks before the sickness:

• If the employee has a regular pattern (e.g. Monday to Friday, or Wednesday to Sunday), those days are the qualifying days.
• If the employee has a variable pattern (e.g. different days each week, common in hospitality), StaffBrik uses the days they work most often.

Each suggestion carries a confidence label, based on how many shifts there were to go on:

Label	Meaning
High confidence	At least 4 shifts a week on average, and 20 or more in the 8 weeks
Medium confidence	At least 2 shifts a week on average, and 10 or more in the 8 weeks
Low confidence - review manually	Fewer shifts than that

You can change the qualifying days before calculating - for example, if an employee has recently changed their working pattern.

caution

A low confidence suggestion, or an AWE with the amber note, should be treated as a rough guide only. For new starters with limited shift history, check the qualifying days and consider entering the AWE by hand from their contracted hours until enough data builds up.

The 28-Week Maximum and Linked Sickness

SSP is paid for up to 28 weeks. StaffBrik treats this as money: SSP stops once 28 times the employee's weekly rate has been paid.

Periods of sickness 8 weeks or less apart are linked, and share one 28-week maximum. A linked absence:

• Uses the earlier spell's AWE. The breakdown says "Linked to sickness from 3 Mar 2027 (8 weeks or less apart), so it uses that AWE and shares one 28-week SSP maximum." If you typed an AWE in for this absence, your figure is kept and the line says it only shares the maximum.
• Picks up where the earlier spell left off, counting what has already been paid towards the 28 weeks.

When the maximum runs out during an absence, the breakdown shows an amber note: "SSP ends on 14 Sep 2027" (or "No SSP is due for this absence" if it had already run out). The note reminds you to give the employee form SSP1 so they can claim Employment and Support Allowance: by the start of week 23 if you knew their SSP would run out before their sickness ends, otherwise within 7 days of it ending.

If the maximum leaves less than a full day's SSP for the last day, that day is shown as its own amount, so the sum still adds up. For example: "£24.65 × 4 qualifying days + £1.40 on the last day = £100.00".

The rota follows the same rule. It charges no SSP after the day SSP ends, and only on the absence's own qualifying days.

SSP is never charged on a day that is paid as holiday. If someone is off sick on a day of booked holiday and you keep it as holiday, that day is paid once, as holiday: the absence's SSP, the rota and the Absence report all leave it out. See Sickness on Booked Time Off.

Logging, editing or deleting an earlier period of sickness recalculates the later absences linked to it, so a correction to the first spell carries through.

Worked Example

Employee: Part-time waitress, age 24, works Thursday to Sunday.

Earnings paid in the relevant period (8 weekly pay days up to the last pay day before sickness):

Week	Hours Worked	Gross Pay (at £12.00/hr)
Week 1	24	£288.00
Week 2	28	£336.00
Week 3	20	£240.00
Week 4	26	£312.00
Week 5	24	£288.00
Week 6	22	£264.00
Week 7	28	£336.00
Week 8	24	£288.00

Step 1 - AWE: Total gross pay = £2,352.00 AWE = £2,352.00 ÷ 8 = £294.00

Step 2 - Weekly SSP: 80% of £294.00 = £235.20 Cap = £123.25 Weekly SSP = £123.25 (capped)

Step 3 - Daily SSP: Qualifying days = 4 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) Daily SSP = £123.25 ÷ 4 = £30.8125

Total for a week off: £30.8125 × 4 qualifying days = £123.25. The exact rate is used for the whole absence and rounded up to the penny once, so 4 qualifying days come to exactly £123.25 rather than 4 × £30.81 = £123.24. Two qualifying days would be £61.625, rounded up to £61.63.

Qualifying days suggestion: High confidence (4 shifts every week for 8 weeks).

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In this example, the employee's AWE is high enough that the cap applies. For lower-paid or fewer-hours workers, the 80% rate may come in below the cap, resulting in a lower SSP payment. StaffBrik shows both the uncapped and capped figures so you can see which applies.

Using the SSP Calculator

SSP is worked out in the absence form, for Standard Sick, Disability-related and Approved Medical absences:

1. Log the absence from StaffBrik > Absences > Log Absence (see Logging Absences). Once it is saved, the form moves on to SSP Calculation.
2. For an Approved Medical absence, answer "Was [name] unfit to work for the whole day(s)?". SSP is only paid for days someone is too ill to work, so it is calculated only if you choose Yes, calculate SSP.
3. Check the qualifying days. They are suggested from the employee's shifts, and you can change them.
4. Click Calculate SSP if it has not already run, and review the breakdown: AWE, weekly and daily rate, the total for the absence, and any notes about linked sickness, the 28-week maximum or a low average.
5. If the AWE does not look right, use Enter AWE manually (offered when the average may be too low) and calculate again, or Recalculate to change the qualifying days.
6. Click Done.

Skip SSP finishes without SSP. If a figure was already saved for the absence, Skip SSP removes it, so the rota no longer counts it. Answering No to the Approved Medical question does the same: any SSP already worked out is removed when you click Done, close the form, or click Update Absence when editing, and the form tells you this before you do.

To see or change SSP later, open the absence from StaffBrik > Absences and click Edit.

The calculator provides an estimate for planning and budgeting purposes. Actual SSP payments should be processed through your payroll system.