These changes are already law. If your employer has failed to pay SSP from day one for absences on or after 6 April 2026, or has denied paternity or parental leave rights citing a qualifying period, they are in breach of the current rules.
Statutory Sick Pay from Day One
Before 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay (SSP) was subject to three waiting days. An employee had to be sick for at least four consecutive days before SSP became payable -- the first three days were unpaid. ERA 2025 abolished the waiting days from 6 April 2026. SSP is now payable from the first day of absence due to sickness or injury.
ERA 2025 also removed the lower earnings limit that previously disqualified lower-paid workers from SSP eligibility. Previously, workers earning below £123 per week were not entitled to SSP. That threshold is gone. SSP is now available to all employees regardless of earnings, subject to a tapering rate for those below the previous lower earnings limit.
If you were absent due to illness on or after 6 April 2026 and your employer did not pay SSP from day one, or told you that you did not earn enough to qualify, they have breached the new rules. This can be enforced through an employment tribunal claim for unlawful deduction of wages. There is no qualifying period for this claim.
Paternity Leave as a Day One Right
Before ERA 2025, employees needed 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer to qualify for statutory paternity leave. ERA 2025 removed this qualifying period from 6 April 2026. Paternity leave -- both one week and two weeks -- is now a day one right from the first day of employment.
The amount of paternity pay and the notice requirements remain the same. Employees must still give their employer notice that they intend to take paternity leave, but they no longer need to have been employed for any minimum period before exercising the right. Dismissal for exercising or seeking to exercise the right to paternity leave is automatically unfair with no qualifying period.
Ordinary Parental Leave as a Day One Right
Ordinary (unpaid) parental leave was previously subject to a one year qualifying period. ERA 2025 removed this qualifying period from 6 April 2026. Parents can now take unpaid parental leave from their first day of employment. The entitlement remains 18 weeks total for each child up to their 18th birthday, with a maximum of 4 weeks per year per child.
As with paternity leave, dismissal for exercising or seeking to exercise the right to parental leave is automatically unfair. If you were dismissed after notifying your employer of an intention to take parental leave, consider whether the dismissal may be automatically unfair regardless of your length of service.
What Employers Must Do
Employers must update payroll systems to remove the SSP waiting days and lower earnings threshold. Employment policies on paternity and parental leave must remove any reference to qualifying periods. Managers must be briefed that these are now day one rights. Failure to comply exposes employers to tribunal claims without a qualifying period requirement.