Paternity Pay

SPP eligibility - births

If an employee's partner is having a baby, the employee will qualify for SPP if they have:

• at least 26 weeks' continuous service with his employer by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth
• average weekly earnings (AWE) at or above the LEL for National Insurance contributions (NICs), currently £102.00;
• declared their eligibility for SPP by giving his employer a completed form SC3 at least 28 days before they want their SPP to start (or as soon as reasonably practical).

SPP rates and recovery

You must pay eligible employees the lower of:

• the standard weekly rate - £124.88 in 2010-11 (£128.77 from 3 April 2011)
• 90 per cent of their AWE

As with SMP you can recover some or all of your SPP payments from HMRC, this is dependent on the size of your annual NICs liability.

For details on the paternity leave rules and SPP entitlement for adoptions please give us a call.