Day-one rights from April 2026: what every UK recruiter needs to know
On 6 April 2026, three new day-one rights came into force in the UK under the Employment Rights Act 2025. They apply from the moment a new hire starts. There are no qualifying periods, no waiting times, no service thresholds. This article covers what changed, who it affects, and what recruiters and HR teams need to have in place. We are not lawyers; this is not legal advice.
What changed
Three rights that previously required service time now apply from day one of employment.
Statutory Sick Pay is a day-one right. From the first qualifying day of sickness absence, eligible employees receive SSP. The three-day waiting period is gone, and the Lower Earnings Limit no longer applies. We covered the SSP changes in detail in a separate article.
Paternity leave is a day-one right. Previously employees needed 26 weeks of continuous service to qualify. From 6 April 2026, paternity leave applies from the first day of employment. There is no qualifying period.
Unpaid parental leave is a day-one right. Previously employees needed one year of continuous service to qualify. From 6 April 2026, it applies from day one. The 18-week-per-child entitlement remains unchanged; only the qualifying period has been removed.
Why this matters for recruiters specifically
Two structural shifts that affect how recruitment agencies operate.
First, the candidate landscape changed overnight. A candidate placed on a permanent role on 6 April 2026 is entitled to family leave and SSP from day one. They no longer need to "earn" these entitlements through service. This affects how clients think about hiring decisions, particularly for candidates with family circumstances that previously made qualifying-period rules a relevant factor.
Second, the cost calculus for clients shifted. An employer who hires a candidate close to a planned family event used to have months of service before paying out family-leave entitlements. From April 2026, those entitlements apply from day one. Clients planning their hiring need to understand this when budgeting and forecasting.
For temporary and contract placements, the day-one SSP change is the most consequential. Agency workers who were previously below the Lower Earnings Limit, or who were off sick within their first three days of an assignment, now generate SSP cost from day one. This is a real and immediate cost line.
What recruiters and HR teams need in place
Five practical things to have working before the next placement or hire.
Updated client and candidate-facing communications. Any documentation that mentions a 26-week or 1-year qualifying period for family leave, or a 3-day waiting period for SSP, is now wrong. Standard contracts, offer letters, candidate guides, and onboarding documentation all need to be reviewed and updated.
Clear payroll processes for new starters. Payroll providers updated their systems for the new rules before 6 April 2026, but the process for triggering family leave or SSP for a new hire who notifies in their first week needs to be documented and communicated. Don't rely on payroll catching it.
Manager training. Hiring managers and line managers need to understand that a new starter notifying paternity or parental leave in their first week is not a discrepancy or an error. Day-one entitlement is now law. Refusing or delaying these entitlements creates legal exposure.
Updated client-facing advisory. If your agency provides any kind of HR advisory to clients, the day-one rights need to be in your standard briefings. Clients without strong internal HR support may not be aware of the change.
Documentation and record-keeping. The Fair Work Agency, launched on 7 April 2026, can enforce SSP underpayment with penalties of up to 200% of the underpaid sum, capped at £20,000 per worker. Holiday pay records must now be kept for six years. Family leave decisions and SSP calculations need to be documented in case of challenge.
Holiday pay record-keeping also became a legal duty on 6 April 2026, with criminal penalties for non-compliance. We cover that in detail in our article on the holiday pay records 6-year rule.
What is not yet in force
A reminder of what has NOT changed yet, to avoid confusion.
The unfair dismissal qualifying period has not yet dropped to six months. That change is scheduled for January 2027. Until then, the existing two-year qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal claims still applies.
Zero-hours contract reforms have not yet come into force for agency workers. The Employment Rights Act includes provisions to require employers to offer guaranteed-hours contracts after a reference period, and these will apply to agency workers, but the rules are scheduled for 2027 with detailed regulations still under consultation.
The expansion of the harassment duty (from "reasonable steps" to "all reasonable steps") is scheduled for October 2026.
This means the April 2026 wave is the first set of changes recruiters and HR teams need to have actioned, but it is not the last.
Where to look for the detail
Acas has updated guidance at acas.org.uk/employment-rights-act-2025 covering all the April 2026 changes in plain language. The government's overview is at gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act. The Fair Work Agency's enforcement powers are set out at gov.uk/government/organisations/fair-work-agency.
If your agency places permanent candidates and you have not updated your standard candidate documentation since March 2026, do that this week. Outdated documentation creates ambiguity that costs you in client-relationship terms.
How PRODICTA fits in
PRODICTA's compliance features handle the April 2026 day-one rights automatically across both the agency and HR/Direct Employer modes. SSP rules apply from day one with the new calculation. Family leave entitlements are surfaced in the candidate profile from the moment the placement starts. The compliance pack records every entitlement decision in a structured, exportable format. Holiday pay records are kept for the six years HMRC requires. To see how it works, the demo at prodicta.co.uk/demo includes the compliance dashboard.