Tag Archive for: statuatory sick pay

Are You Up to Speed with the Changes to Statutory Payments for Your Employees (Updated in April 2023)?

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This year’s statutory pay increases represent between a 9% and 10.1% increase from 22/23 as an effort to soften the blow of the rising costs of living on employees.

It’s the time of year that the Government updates statutory payments for employees. The updates cover a wide range of statutory rates of pay, from statutory sick pay to the national living wage for those aged over 23 years old.

What Has Changed?

From 1 April 2023 onwards:

  • National Living Wage for age 23 or over – £10.42 per hour
  • National Minimum Wage for age 21 to 22 – £10.18 per hour
  • National Minimum Wage for age 18 to 20 – £7.49 per hour
  • National Minimum Wage for under 18s – £5.28 per hour
  • National Minimum Wage for Apprentices (in their first year only) – £5.28 per hour


From 2 April 2023 onwards:

  • Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance – £172.48 per week
  • Statutory Shared Parental Pay – £172.48 per week
  • Statutory Paternity Pay – £172.48 per week
  • Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay – £172.48 per week

From 6 April 2023 onwards:

  • Statutory Sick Pay – £109.40 per week

No Change

The minimum weekly earnings threshold has not changed, for eligibility for statutory sick pay or statutory maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental pay, which remains at £123 per week. Actions for Employers

From an employer perspective, it’s important that you are aware of these increases to ensure that your policies and practice are up to date in order to remain compliant and maintain your employer brand. In particular, we would recommend for you to review how you manage increases for younger workers. For example, if the rate of pay for a 20 year old employee in your organisation is currently £8 per hour, this is in alignment with minimum wage for their age. However, once they reach their 21st birthday they will be entitled to be paid a minimum of £10.18 per hour. You will need to ensure that you have processes in place to monitor age increases and review pay accordingly to avoid inadvertently breaching the Regulations.

Additionally, we would suggest that you review the pay of all those absent due to sickness or parental leave to ensure their pay is increased in line with the April 2023 updates.

For a discussion on how NQHR can support you to audit your current pay policies and practices in line with the statutory increases contact Kathryn Chidzey-Jones, HR Consultant in our team on 07881 092524.

Coronavirus – Changes to the Statutory Sick Pay Regulations

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases are continuing to spread across the UK, and in response, we have provided guidance around your statutory sick pay rights

Statutory Sick Pay

We recently reported that an employee who self-isolates because they are suffering from the symptoms of coronavirus/COVID-19, may be entitled to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). SSP is currently paid at a rate of £94.25 per week (to increase to £95.85 on 6 April 2020) for up to 28 weeks from the fourth day that the employee is unable to work.

Since that report, new legislation has been introduced which provides that any employee who is self-isolating in accordance with government guidance will be entitled to SSP.

At the date of first publication, the relevant new legislation stated that the change to persons entitled to SSP would be effective from 13 March 2020. However, further changes have since been made to the relevant legislation which mean that an employee who self-isolates is actually entitled to SSP from 17 March 2020, rather than 13 March 2020.

Additionally, in a recent update, the Chancellor announced that new measures including £30 billion of tax reliefs and loans would be implemented to support small-and-medium-sized businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, the support plan will allow some employers to reclaim SSP paid for sickness absence.

Within this announcement, the government confirmed that emergency legislation will be brought forward to provide that SSP will be payable from the first day that an employee is off work and that this change will have retrospective effect from 13 March 2020. The draft Coronavirus Bill has been released today and you may read the draft Bill here. In the meantime, the government is encouraging employers to pay employees who are affected by coronavirus from the first day of absence, with immediate effect.

The draft Coronavirus Bill states that all changes made under the Act will be temporary and apply for a period of two years from the date it is passed. However, the legislation that provided for the change to eligibility for SSP is due to remain in force until mid-November 2020, but expressly states that this will be kept under review.

We will continue to closely monitor economic, business and legislative developments in this area.

To discuss the steps your organisation should take now in relation to coronavirus and SSP, please contact Sarah Martin on 07799 136 091 or or Caitlin Anniss on 07909 683 938 at Narrow Quay HR.