Most people have a rough idea what happens if they die. Far fewer have any idea what happens if they simply cannot work for a year, which is both more likely and, financially, often harder on a household.
The answer is knowable and specific. It is also lower than almost everyone expects.
Statutory Sick Pay: £123.25 a week
If you are an eligible employee, your employer must pay you Statutory Sick Pay. The amount is £123.25 a week, or 80% of your normal weekly earnings — whichever is lower. Your employer works it out from your average weekly earnings over an eight-week period.
An employer cannot pay less than that. They can pay more, and many do, through a company sick pay scheme.
Annualised, £123.25 a week is about £534 a month. It is worth sitting with that figure for a moment against your own outgoings, because it is the number the rest of this article is measured from.
The 28-week cliff
SSP is paid for up to 28 weeks. Roughly six and a half months.
That ceiling is the single most important fact in this article, and the one most worth writing on a calendar. It is not a guideline or a typical duration — it is where the entitlement stops. A household planning around illness should know what happens in week 29, because something different happens then whether or not anyone has prepared for it.
After that: Employment and Support Allowance
When SSP ends, the route for most people is Employment and Support Allowance.
ESA has two stages:
| Stage | Who | Weekly amount |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment phase, about 13 weeks | Under 25 | up to £75.65 |
| Assessment phase, about 13 weeks | 25 or over | up to £95.55 |
| Main phase | Work-related activity group | up to £95.55 |
| Main phase | Support group | up to £145.90 |
The assessment phase runs while your claim is being assessed — around 13 weeks. Which main-phase group you then fall into depends on that assessment, not on your diagnosis: the support group is for people whose condition means they are not expected to prepare for work.
So the best outcome, at the most generous end of the scale, is £145.90 a week — about £632 a month.
What the whole picture looks like
Laid end to end, an employee with no company scheme and no insurance gets:
- Weeks 1 to 28: £123.25 a week, from the employer. About £534 a month.
- Weeks 29 to roughly 41: ESA assessment phase, up to £95.55 a week if you are 25 or over. About £414 a month.
- From roughly week 42: up to £95.55 or up to £145.90 a week depending on the group. Between about £414 and £632 a month.
Note the direction of travel. The longer you are unable to work, the less the state pays — which is the opposite of how household costs behave over a long illness.
These are also maximums. "Up to" is doing real work in the official wording, and other income or circumstances can reduce what you actually receive.
The three things to find out about your own position
The figures above are the floor. What sits on top of them varies enormously, and almost nobody knows their own answer without looking.
- Does your employer run a sick pay scheme, and for how long? Some pay full salary for three months, then half for three more. Some pay nothing above SSP. This single fact changes the shape of the problem more than anything else.
- When does it drop to SSP? That date, not the date you fall ill, is when the real gap opens.
- Are you employed at all? If you are self-employed there is no SSP and no employer scheme. The floor is lower and it starts sooner.
What this is actually for
Knowing these numbers does not by itself solve anything. What it does is turn an abstract worry into a specific figure: the difference between what arrives and what leaves your account each month.
That figure is what income protection insurance is priced against, and it is the only honest way to judge whether such a policy is worth what it costs. A policy is not worth buying because illness is frightening; it is worth buying if the gap it covers is one your household could not absorb.
How income protection and critical illness cover differ — and why they answer genuinely different questions — is set out in the comparison of the two.
Death is the other half of the same planning exercise and runs on entirely different arithmetic: sizing a life insurance payout starts from what a household loses permanently, not from what it is short each month. Where an estate may face inheritance tax, writing the policy in trust matters as well.
What to actually check
- Your employment contract or staff handbook, for the sick pay scheme and its duration.
- Your monthly essential outgoings — the ones that continue whether or not you are working.
- The gap between them and £534 a month, which is the SSP figure.
- Whether anyone else's income could cover it, and for how long.
- Your savings, in months rather than pounds. Three months of outgoings is a very different position from three weeks.
This article sets out published rates and is general information for a United Kingdom audience. It is not financial advice, and entitlement to SSP and ESA depends on eligibility conditions this article does not cover in full. Check the current figures on GOV.UK, since they are reviewed regularly, and take advice on a claim from Citizens Advice or a welfare rights service.
Sources
- GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay: what you'll get (opens in a new tab)
- GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay: overview (opens in a new tab)
- GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay: employer guide, entitlement (opens in a new tab)
- GOV.UK — Employment and Support Allowance: what you'll get (opens in a new tab)
- GOV.UK — Employment and Support Allowance: your ESA claim (opens in a new tab)
This article is general information for a United Kingdom audience and reflects rates published by GOV.UK at the date of review. It is not financial, legal or welfare advice. Benefit rates and eligibility rules change, and what any individual receives depends on their circumstances, other income and the outcome of a work capability assessment. Check current figures on GOV.UK and take advice from Citizens Advice or a welfare rights adviser before relying on any of this. Last reviewed 15 September 2026.
