SPM30145 - Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) - Overview

Dealing with questions about SAP

Operational responsibility for dealing with all questions and disputes about statutory payments such as SAP lies with HMRC. See Decisions and Appeals for National Insurance and Statutory Payments.

HMRC staff should deal with questions raised about SAP as follows:

• use the telephone wherever possible
• do not tell employers how to make a decision, only give advice on how the guidance should be applied and point out helpful leaflets
• if an employer does not understand SAP, education is available through workshops, information can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/bst.

If the query is from an employer in another area, answer the query, inform the employer which HMRC office deals with it and inform the relevant HMRC office of the query.

Statutory Adoption Leave

HMRC is only expected to answer very basic queries about adoption leave. HMRC staff are not expected to become experts in this field. Disputes between an employee and employer on matters of entitlement to leave, unfair dismissal or any other employment issue should be referred to Acas or LRA. See SPM30140.