SSP, SMP and SPP for overseas employers

When you employ someone in the UK from abroad, you may take on more than salary and National Insurance. Whether you owe statutory sick pay and statutory family pay turns on one question: are you liable for UK employer's (secondary) National Insurance? Here's how to tell, the 2026/27 rates, and the part most liable employers miss: how much of it you can claim back from HMRC.

Do overseas employers really have to pay these?

It depends on employer's National Insurance, not on where the work is done. The law defines the "employer" for statutory sick pay (SSP) and statutory maternity pay (SMP) as the person liable to pay secondary Class 1 National Insurance on the employee's earnings, or who would be but for the earnings threshold or the employee being under 16 (Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, sections 163 and 171). HMRC's Statutory Payments Manual applies the same test to the other family payments.

• You're liable if you owe UK employer's NI: for example a UK company or branch, an overseas employer with a UK place of business, or an employer based in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, which usually pays employer's NI through an NI-only scheme. If the employee meets the qualifying conditions, you pay SSP and the family payments just as a UK employer would. Where a UK business is treated as the employer for NI instead, that business is the one liable.
• You're generally not liable on a DPNI scheme with no UK presence, where the employee pays their own tax and NI and there's no employer's NI. You aren't the "employer" for statutory pay, so there's nothing to pay and nothing to recover. The employee may be able to claim state support instead, such as Maternity Allowance if they can't get SMP, or Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance when sick. You can still choose to offer contractual sick and family pay.

The main schemes are SSP (sickness), SMP (maternity), SPP (paternity), Shared Parental Pay (ShPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP), Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) and Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP). Where they apply, they 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, SPBP and SNCP for most employers; and
• 109% under Small Employers' Relief (100% of the payment plus 9% compensation), available if you paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 NICs (before Employment Allowance) in the last complete tax year before the relevant qualifying week or matching week for that payment, which covers many overseas employers with one or two UK staff who pay employer's NI.

So a small overseas employer that's liable for maternity pay can usually recover all of it, and a little more, through the payroll filings. None of this arises on a DPNI with no employer's NI, because there's no statutory pay liability to recover. 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 any employer NI you owe 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? Where statutory pay applies, 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? Yes. On a DPNI the employee pays their own tax and National Insurance and there's no employer's NI, so an overseas employer with no UK presence generally isn't liable for SSP, SMP or the other statutory payments, and there's no EPS recovery. The employee may be able to claim state benefits instead, such as Maternity Allowance. You can still pay contractual sick or family pay. An employer in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland is different: it usually owes employer's NI through an NI-only scheme, so statutory pay applies.

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 average 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.