Statutory Sick Pay, ESA and what you get if you cannot work

If illness stops you working, the money you receive usually comes in layers. The first layer is Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), paid by your employer at £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings if that is lower, for up to 28 weeks¹. Since 6 April 2026 it is payable from your first full day of sickness, and there is no minimum earnings threshold to qualify⁴. If you are self-employed, or once those 28 weeks run out, the state offers Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit⁶. Alongside all of these, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can pay towards the extra costs of a long-term condition, and it is not affected by whether you work⁷.

None of these amounts is designed to replace a full wage, which is why many people also hold income protection insurance, which pays a regular income if you can no longer work due to ill health or disability⁸. This page explains each layer of state support in turn: what it pays, who qualifies, how to claim it, and where it stops.

What you can get if illness stops you working

The support available depends on how you work, how long you are ill and what your condition costs you. An employee who becomes ill will normally start with Statutory Sick Pay, which the employer pays through payroll. Many employers also run their own occupational sick pay scheme on top, and whether you get that depends on what your employment contract says¹⁰. Some employers, including the NHS, pay full or half pay for a period of illness under their own terms, so the contractual position can matter far more than the statutory minimum.

If sick pay runs out, or never applied, the next layer is benefits. Employment and Support Allowance supports people with an illness or disability that affects how much they can work⁶, and Universal Credit tops up low income. Personal Independence Payment is different: it is not about earnings at all, but about the extra costs of needing help with daily living or getting around, and you can receive it whether you are working or not⁷. In Scotland, PIP has been replaced by Adult Disability Payment¹².

Two other possibilities sit outside this sequence. If your condition is related to your job, you may be able to claim Industrial Injuries Benefit, and if you need daily care and attention because of a disability, Constant Attendance Allowance may be available¹³. If you want to stay in work rather than leave, Access to Work can help people with a physical or mental health condition or disability to get or stay in work, for example with equipment or travel support¹⁴. And if ill health means leaving your job permanently, ill health retirement may be possible through your pension, though it requires medical evidence that you cannot do your job, any other job for your employer, or a similar job until State Pension age¹⁵.

Statutory Sick Pay: £123.25 a week for up to 28 weeks

Statutory Sick Pay is the legal minimum an employer must pay most employees who are too ill to work. The weekly rate is £123.25 from April 2026, set in legislation¹ and confirmed in the official benefit rates for 2026 to 2027¹⁶. If 80% of your average weekly earnings is lower than £123.25, you get the lower figure instead, so people on very low earnings receive a proportionate amount³.

Two limits shape what SSP can do for you. First, it runs for a maximum of 28 weeks per period of sickness, and it then stops whatever your health². Second, it is treated as earned income, so income tax and Class 1 National Insurance contributions are deducted as usual¹⁷. For most people, £123.25 a week is well below their normal pay, which is why an employer's own sick pay scheme, savings or an income protection policy often fill the gap. The question of whether you need cover on top of sick pay is covered in do I need income protection if I have sick pay or savings?.

SSP is paid by your employer, and if your employer goes bust, HMRC pays it instead¹⁷. If you are sick at the end of your maternity pay period, you may claim SSP with the normal eligibility rules applying¹⁸.

Statutory Sick Pay now starts from your first day off sick

The rules changed on 6 April 2026. Before then, an employer did not have to start paying SSP until the fourth day of sickness absence¹⁷. Now Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first full day of sickness⁴, and you can qualify from your first day of absence with no minimum earnings threshold³. For short illnesses this makes a real difference: a week off work now attracts a week of SSP rather than nothing.

The 28 week maximum has not changed. SSP can be paid for up to 28 weeks in a period of sickness, and linked periods of absence, where they fall close together, can count towards one another². When the 28 weeks end, or if you never qualified, the route to ongoing support is ESA or Universal Credit, covered below.

How to get sick pay from your employer

Claiming SSP is a matter of following your employer's process, and the exact steps depend on the employer. In general you must tell your employer you are unable to work before the deadline they set, or within seven days of being off sick if they have not set one¹⁰. Some employers have a shorter deadline, so it is worth checking your contract or staff handbook before you need it¹⁹.

For the first seven days of illness, including non-working days, you can self-certify⁹. In practice this usually means filling in a form your employer provides for the first week you are off, or writing a letter, or phoning in; if you are off work to care for someone, Form SC2, the Employee's Statement of Sickness, is used¹⁹. After the first seven days of being off sick, you will usually have to send your employer a doctor's certificate, known as a fit note¹⁰. A fit note can say what you can do as well as what you cannot, which is how phased returns to work are often arranged.

If your employer refuses to pay SSP, ask them for their reasons in writing. If you are not entitled under the rules, for example because you have already received 28 weeks, you may be able to claim new style ESA or Universal Credit instead. If your employer has gone bust, HMRC steps in and pays your SSP¹⁷.

Employment and Support Allowance when sick pay stops or you cannot get it

Employment and Support Allowance is the benefit for people who have a disability or health condition that affects how much they can work⁶. It replaced Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on grounds of incapacity for new claims from 30 October 2008²¹, and it is paid usually every two weeks²². You must be under State Pension age²³.

There are two routes into ESA, and they work quite differently. New style ESA is a contribution-based benefit: to be eligible you must have a limited capability for work because of illness or disability, be under State Pension age, have made enough National Insurance contributions, not be getting Statutory Sick Pay, and not be working¹¹. The income-related form of ESA has closed to new claims, with claimants directed to Universal Credit instead²⁴. Existing claimants may still be able to carry on getting ESA as a student²⁵.

After claiming, you will be invited to a Work Capability Assessment and asked to fill in a capability for work questionnaire²³. The outcome matters. If you are found fit for work, new style ESA stops, though you do not have to pay anything back, and you can claim new style Jobseeker's Allowance instead at the same amount of money, but you must look for work and accept job offers depending on the age of your children²⁰. Note that new style Jobseeker's Allowance is not available at all if an illness or disability stops you from working²⁶.

ESA is a large benefit despite its shrinking caseload: official statistics show 810,000 claimants at March 2026, a fall of 39.0% since February 2025²⁷. In Northern Ireland there were 55,700 claimants at May 2026, with an average weekly payment of £138.67²⁸. The full amounts and eligibility rules are set out in the benefits section.

New style ESA or Universal Credit: which applies to you

Because income-related ESA has closed to new claims, most people making a fresh claim face a choice between new style ESA and Universal Credit, and the two are not mutually exclusive. You may be eligible to claim new style ESA at the same time as Universal Credit²⁹. If you do claim both, the Universal Credit amount is reduced by the amount of ESA received, so the ESA is not extra money on top, but it can still matter because new style ESA is based on National Insurance contributions rather than income or savings¹¹.

The practical position is:

The timing point is worth planning around. You cannot receive new style ESA while you are getting SSP, so a claim made during the 28 weeks of sick pay will not pay out immediately, but if your SSP ends and you are still not well enough to work, you can claim then¹¹. Some people prepare the ESA claim near the end of the SSP period so there is no gap. Universal Credit is also the benefit that most working-age people are moved to over time, and other benefits such as PIP are not affected by that move³⁰.

Working while on ESA: permitted work limits

ESA assumes you are not working when you claim, but the rules allow some limited work. Under the permitted work rules, the work must be less than 16 hours on average per week, or it may affect entitlement³¹. This is designed to let people try working without losing their benefit immediately, and the Mental Health and Money Advice service sets out the exceptions and benefit rules for trying work or volunteering while claiming⁷.

There are also specific provisions in the regulations. A pregnant woman can be treated as having limited capability for work where there is a serious risk of damage to her health or to the health of her unborn child if she does not refrain from work³². This reflects the wider principle that ESA looks at what your health allows, not just at a diagnosis.

If you are found fit for work at your assessment, the position changes: new style ESA stops and the route becomes jobseeking benefits instead²⁰. If you disagree with the decision, you can ask for it to be looked at again and then appeal, and free help with challenging benefit decisions is available from charities and MoneyHelper.

Personal Independence Payment for extra costs of illness or disability

Personal Independence Payment is not about lost earnings. It pays towards the extra costs of a long-term health condition or disability, and you can receive it whether you are working or not⁷. To qualify you must generally be aged between 16 and State Pension age, meet residence conditions, have had your condition for three months and be expected to have it for at least a further nine months, and need help with daily living or mobility³. PIP applies if you live in England or Wales and have not reached State Pension age³³, and it replaced Disability Living Allowance for new claims from working-age adults³⁴.

In Scotland, PIP has been replaced by Adult Disability Payment¹², and Scottish recipients have been transferred to Social Security Scotland. The rates from 6 April 2026 are set in legislation: the daily living component pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 at the enhanced rate, and the mobility component pays £30.30 at the standard rate and £80.00 at the enhanced rate³⁵. PIP is usually paid every four weeks³⁶.

PIP is one of the largest benefits in the system. At March 2026 there were 4 million people claiming PIP under DWP ownership, an increase of 290,000 (7.9%) between February 2025 and March 2026²⁷. Official estimates also suggest money is being left unclaimed: around 10 in every 100 PIP claims had unfulfilled eligibility in the financial year ending 2026, worth an estimated £950 million against total expenditure of £28.5 billion³⁷. If you think you may qualify, it is worth checking rather than assuming you will be refused.

If you are self-employed

The self-employed are not eligible for Statutory Sick Pay¹⁷. If you work for yourself and illness stops you working, there is no employer to pay sick pay and no SSP from the state, which makes the position sharply different from employees. What you can do instead is apply for other benefits if you cannot work or your income decreases, for example Universal Credit⁴⁰.

Because there is no employer sick pay to fall back on, self-employed people often look at income protection insurance to cover the gap, and the wider question of how such policies work is covered in how income protection works. New style ESA is also open to self-employed people who have paid enough Class 2 National Insurance contributions through their self-employed earnings, since it is a contribution-based benefit¹¹. How a payout from an insurance policy interacts with benefits is explained in does income protection affect my benefits?.

Going into hospital or abroad while claiming

Going abroad does not automatically end your sick pay. If you qualify for Statutory Sick Pay and go abroad, it will still be payable, as long as you can prove that you are still sick⁴¹. If you work for a UK employer in the EEA, you will usually be able to get Statutory Sick Pay as long as you qualify under the general rules³⁹. The rules on benefits abroad are set out in full in the official NI38 guidance⁵.

Disability benefits have stricter absence rules. For Adult Disability Payment, a temporary absence abroad for medical treatment must relate to a disease or disablement which started before the claimant left the UK, within a 26 week medical absence period⁴⁰. Someone who goes abroad for a holiday and falls ill after leaving the Common Travel Area is not absent for the specific purpose of being treated, and would not satisfy that requirement; the same principle applies to Pension Age Disability Payment⁴⁰. In other words, planned treatment for an existing condition is treated differently from falling ill unexpectedly on holiday.

Hospital stays within the UK affect some benefits but not others, and the position depends on which benefit and which component, so it is worth telling the office that pays you about any admission. For people on maternity pay, sickness at the end of the Statutory Maternity Pay period can open a fresh SSP claim¹⁸.

Where to get free help

Working out which combination of sick pay and benefits applies to you can be complicated, and free, independent help exists. MoneyHelper, the government-backed money guidance service, can explain the options, and charities such as Turn2us, Age UK, Marie Curie, Macmillan and Scope publish detailed guidance on sick pay and benefits for people with illness or disability¹⁰. A benefits calculator can show what you might be entitled to before you commit to a claim.

If a decision goes against you, whether on ESA, PIP or SSP, you can ask for mandatory reconsideration and then appeal to an independent tribunal, and the organisations above can help with that. If you have an income protection policy and a claim is refused, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at complaints about income protection insurance⁸. For debt problems that illness has caused, free debt advice charities can help before the situation escalates. The full range of benefits, their rates and their eligibility rules is set out in the benefits section, and the wider question of what insurance adds on top is covered in the protection section.