SSP, SMP and SPP for overseas employers

When you employ someone in the UK from abroad, you take on more than salary and National Insurance. UK employees have a legal right to statutory sick pay and statutory family leave pay — and those rights don't disappear just because the employer sits overseas. Here's what you owe, the 2026/27 rates, and the part most employers miss: how much of it you can claim back from HMRC.

Do overseas employers really have to pay these?

In most cases, yes. Statutory payments attach to the employment, not to where the employer is based. If your UK employee is on a UK payroll — typically through a DPNI scheme — and they meet the qualifying conditions, you are responsible for paying statutory sick pay (SSP) and the statutory family pay schemes in the same way a UK-based employer would be.

The main schemes are SSP (sickness), SMP (maternity), SPP (paternity), Shared Parental Pay (ShPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP). They all run through payroll and are reported to HMRC in real time.

The 2026/27 rates

These are the standard weekly rates for the 2026/27 tax year:

For the family-related payments (SMP, SPP, adoption and the rest), an employee generally needs average weekly earnings at or above the Lower Earnings Limit (£129 a week for 2026/27) over the relevant reference period. SSP works differently: from 6 April 2026 it no longer has a lower-earnings test and is paid from the first qualifying day of sickness — with its own notification rules layered on top.

The bit employers miss: recovery from HMRC

Family-related statutory pay is largely reclaimable. You pay it to the employee through payroll, then recover it from HMRC by reducing the PAYE you remit (reported on the Employer Payment Summary, the EPS):

• 92% of SMP, SPP, ShPP, SAP and SPBP for most employers; and
• 109% under Small Employers' Relief (100% of the payment plus 9% compensation) — available if your total Class 1 NICs for the previous tax year were £45,000 or less, which covers many overseas employers with one or two UK staff.

So a single-employee overseas business paying maternity pay can usually recover all of it, and a little more, through the payroll filings. SSP, by contrast, is not recoverable — the old Percentage Threshold Scheme was abolished years ago, so sick pay is a genuine cost to the employer.

What this means for budgeting a UK hire

Statutory pay rarely changes the decision to hire, but it should shape your cash-flow planning. Maternity pay can mean fronting several thousand pounds before recovery lands; sick pay is a smaller but non-recoverable cost. Both sit alongside employer NI and pension contributions — see our breakdown of what a UK employee really costs.

Short FAQ

Can I just pay my own enhanced sick or maternity scheme instead? You can pay more than the statutory minimum, but you can't pay less. Statutory pay is a floor, not a ceiling.

Does a DPNI scheme change any of this? No — statutory payments run through a DPNI scheme just as they would any UK payroll, including the EPS recovery mechanism.

What if my employee doesn't earn enough to qualify? For the family-leave payments (maternity, paternity and so on), if average weekly earnings are below the Lower Earnings Limit they may not qualify, and may instead claim certain state benefits — you would issue the relevant form. SSP is different from 6 April 2026: there's no lower-earnings test, and lower earners receive 80% of their normal weekly earnings rather than the flat rate.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice, and reflects our understanding of the rules and 2026/27 rates as at June 2026. Your circumstances may differ — please get specific advice before acting.