SSP for agency, zero-hours, and part-time workers
Agency work, zero-hours contracts, and part-time hours do not exclude you from SSP. What matters is whether you are classed as an employee, whether you have done some work, and whether you are sick for at least one full working day. Since the Lower Earnings Limit was abolished on 6 April 2026, low or irregular earnings no longer block entitlement at all. This page covers the patterns people ask about most.
The abolition matters most here
Before April 2026, a zero-hours worker averaging below the Lower Earnings Limit got nothing, however ill they were. From 6 April 2026 that worker qualifies and gets 80% of their average weekly earnings. A worker averaging £60 a week gets £48 a week — modest, but no longer zero.
Agency workers
Agency workers may be entitled to SSP, and GOV.UK says so expressly. The question is who your employer is for SSP purposes and what your qualifying days are, which depends on your contract with the agency and, in some arrangements, the hirer. If you work regular assignments through one agency, the agency is normally the employer to notify. Tell the agency promptly, in the way your contract requires, and keep the notification in writing. If the agency says you are not an employee, ask for the basis in writing: labels in a contract do not decide employment status on their own, and HMRC can decide a dispute. Different rules can apply to some employment types, including agency workers, directors, and educational workers, so an unusual arrangement deserves a GOV.UK check rather than an assumption.
Zero-hours contracts
On a zero-hours contract you are typically an employee with no guaranteed hours, and your qualifying days are the days you normally work under your agreed pattern — which, for irregular work, is worked out from your actual pattern rather than from a fixed rota. Keep your own record of shifts offered, accepted, and worked: in a dispute about qualifying days, that record is your evidence. Your average weekly earnings over the 8-week period reflect your actual earnings, including weeks with few or no shifts, so irregular workers should expect the 80% calculation to bite and should check the average rather than assuming the flat rate.
Part-time and irregular-hours workers
Part-time workers qualify on the same terms as full-time workers, with the daily rate adjusted to their pattern: fewer qualifying days means a higher daily rate, because the same weekly amount is divided by fewer days. A two-day-a-week worker on the full rate gets £61.63 a day; a seven-day worker gets £17.61 a day; both receive £123.25 for a full week. Seasonal workers, term-time workers, and people with annualised hours should check how their employer has set their qualifying days, because a wrong pattern changes every daily payment.
If an employer or agency says you do not qualify
Ask for form SSP1 and a written reason. An employer who says you do not qualify must send you form SSP1 within 7 days of your first day off sick, and the form explains how to appeal to HMRC. Common incorrect refusals include: applying the old four-day rule, applying the old earnings threshold, treating agency or zero-hours status as an automatic exclusion, or refusing because you have not worked for the employer for long. Each of those is wrong under the current rules. Raise it with the employer first, in writing, citing the current GOV.UK position; if that fails, contact the HMRC Statutory Payment Disputes Team.