How to calculate and recover Additional Statutory Paternity Pay

Your employee may be entitled to Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) if their partner is due to have a baby or they have been jointly matched with a child for adoption on or after 3 April 2011. For overseas adoptions the child has to enter the UK on or after 3 April 2011.You may be entitled to recover some or all of the ASPP you pay. How much you'll recover depends on your Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) payments.

Your payroll software may work out your ASPP payments and how much you can recover. If not there is support and guidance in this guide to help you.

On this page:

Information you'll need to work out ASPP

Whichever method you use to work out ASPP or recovery of ASPP, you'll need to gather together the same information.

Information needed to calculate ASPP

Before you can start to calculate your employee's ASPP, you'll need:

  • The completed declaration signed by your employee and their partner, (in the event of death of the mother or adopter this would only be the employee) - form SC7, SC8, SC9, SC10 or your own version.
  • Your employee's gross pay for the dates that your employee was paid in the 'relevant period' (the period used to calculate average weekly earnings). The calculator will work out this period for you (for a definition please read E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay').
  • The date your employee started working for you.
  • Confirmation that your employee's gross earnings are liable to employer's Class 1 NICs or would if they were high enough.

Download E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay' (PDF 643K)

Information needed to work out what you can recover

To work out how much of the ASPP payments you can recover you'll need to know:

  • the amount of ASPP you're liable to pay - this is worked out automatically if you use one of HMRC's ASPP calculators or commercial software that has its own ASPP calculator
  • how much your Class 1 NICs (employer and employee) were for the 'relevant tax year' - you can get this figure from your Employer Annual Return form P35

The later section 'How much ASPP you can recover' explains how to decide which is the 'relevant tax year' for working out the total NICs you pay in a year.

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Calculating and recovering ASPP

If you don't have payroll software which includes ASPP calculations, there are three other options you can use to calculate ASPP. The sections below explain each of these ways.

It's easier and quicker to choose a calculator as an option than to do it manually as both calculators will also work out if you are entitled to recover any ASPP you pay.

Calculating and recovering using HMRC Basic PAYE Tools

The ASPP calculator is part of HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools package - which you can download from our website - there's a link at the end of this section. If you don't already use Basic PAYE Tools you need to download the whole software in order to use the ASPP calculator.

The ASPP calculator works out how much ASPP you'll have to pay and how much you can recover. It's easy to use and does everything for you.

The calculator will work out:

  • whether your employee is entitled to be paid ASPP
  • the amount of ASPP you should pay and from what date
  • how much you can recover

You can print the figures worked out by the ASPP calculator so they're ready to enter in:

  • the P11 Calculator, which is also part of the HMRC Basic PAYE Tools
  • your commercial payroll software (but this may have its own ASPP calculator)
  • any manual payroll records

The calculator will not cover;

  • employees with irregular pay patterns or those paid annually, including Directors
  • cases in the event of the mother or adopter dying
  • the calculation of any Keeping in Touch (KIT) days worked during the ASPP period
  • adopting a child from abroad

For advice on these circumstances call the Employer Helpline - you’ll find a link to their contact details in the 'Help and advice' section at the end of this guide.

How to use the ASPP calculator, with worked examples explaining what information to input on each screen is included in HMRC's ASPP Learning Zone. This includes ASPP scenarios which can be used to practice using the calculator. You can access the Learning Zone from within the Basic PAYE Tools package.

Using HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools

Payroll calculations and records: an introduction

Calculating and recovering using HMRC's online calculator

This is a simple interactive calculator available to use immediately from the link at the end of this section. The ASPP calculator works out how much ASPP you'll have to pay and how much you can recover. It's easy to use and does everything for you.

The calculator will work out:

  • whether your employee is entitled to be paid ASPP
  • the amount of ASPP you should pay and from what date
  • how much you can recover

You can print the figures worked out by the online ASPP calculator so they're ready to enter in whatever payroll system you are using. You can also review your answers and save them to come back to at a later date. Once you have completed the tool your answers and the results can be printed off.

The calculator will not cover:

  • cases in the event of the mother or adopter dying
  • the calculation of any Keeping in Touch (KIT) days worked during the ASPP period

For directors of companies incorporated after 1 October 2009, there are new company regulations which may affect the director's average weekly earnings for ASPP purposes. Before using the calculator to ensure you use the correct earnings you may wish to read more detail in HMRC's publication E19 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay'. You can download this publication using the link at the end of this section. Alternatively, you can contact the Employer Helpline - you can find their contact details in the 'Help and advice' section at the end of this guide.

How to calculate and recover Additional Statutory PaternityPay on the Business Link website (Opens new window)

Calculating ASPP manually

If you want to calculate ASPP payments manually you'll have to work out:

  • Whether your employee has worked for you long enough - for birth cases it is at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due, and in adoption cases it is at least 26 weeks up to and into the matching week. When adopting from abroad it is at least 26 weeks prior to the date the child entered the UK. In all cases they must still work for you until the week before the ASPP period begins.
  • Whether they earn enough - you need to establish if your employee's average weekly earnings are above the lower earnings limit during the relevant period (the period used to calculate average weekly earnings). For details on how to work this out, please read HMRC's publication E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay'. You can download this publication using the link at the end of this guide. This figure is needed to decide if and how much to pay.
  • When the ASPP period can start - to do this you must first establish the date when the child will be 20 weeks old, or 20 weeks after the child was placed for adoption of entered the UK as this is the earliest ASPP can start. Then look at the date the mother/adopter stopped receiving Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)/Maternity Allowance (MA)/Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) and returned to work. The date cannot be later than 37 weeks after this date and there must be at least two weeks remaining.
  • When the ASPP period will end - this is the end of the mother/adopter’s SMP/MA/SAP period as this is the date that ASPP can be paid up until.
  • How much to pay them - If your employee's entitled to ASPP, you must pay them the lower of £135.45 (from 1 April 2012) or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings.

ASPP should be paid on the same payday as normal wages. If there is no agreed payday, payment should be made on the last day of the calendar month. Payments of ASPP count as earnings and you must deduct tax and NICs from them in the usual way.

You'll normally be able to recover some or all of the ASPP you pay - see the section below ‘How much ASPP you can recover'.
You'll find guidance on all of the above in HMRC's publication E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay'.

The HMRC ASPP Learning Zone includes demonstrations which show you how to calculate ASPP using the Basic PAYE Tools calculator and manually. You can access the Learning Zone and download individual modules from within the Basic PAYE Tools package.

Download E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay' (PDF 643K)

Using HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools

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How much ASPP you can recover

How much ASPP you can recover depends on the total amount of employer's and employees' Class 1 NICs you pay in the 'relevant tax year'.

To calculate the recovery due for each employee to whom you paid ASPP you will need to know two things:

  • which tax year is the 'relevant year'
  • your total Class 1 NICs for that year

The 'relevant tax year' is:

  • the last complete tax year before the Saturday of the employee's Qualifying week (the 15th week before the week the baby is due) or
  • the last complete tax year before the Saturday of your employee's Matching week (the week in which they were told they'd been matched with a child) or
  • the last complete tax year before the Saturday your employee's child entered the UK
  • depending on when your employee's baby is due, this could be the tax year just ended i.e. up to the last 5th April or the tax year previous to that.

You'll find the total of your employer and employee NICs for the tax year on your copy of form P35 Employer Annual Return.

If you paid no Class 1 NICs or only part paid in the relevant year

You might have paid no Class 1 NICs in the relevant tax year - or only paid them for part of it. In this case, you'll need to check to see if you were paying them at the rate of more than £45,000 a year. You do this by working out your average monthly payment and multiplying that by 12.

You'll find a full explanation of how to work out how much ASPP you can recover in our publication E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay'. This explains what period to use to work out your average monthly payment if you paid no NICs for the relevant year, or if you only paid them for part of it.

Download E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay' (PDF 643K)

If you do not use payroll software with a built in calculator, or one of the calculators provided from this guide you will need to calculate any recovery manually.

Recovery rates - use when calculating manually

If your Class 1 NICs are £45,000 or less in the relevant tax year, you can recover 100 per cent of your ASPP payments plus an additional amount as compensation.

The additional amount of compensation for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is 3 per cent.

You can recover 100 per cent, plus the appropriate rate of compensation, of the total of all payments of ASPP made in the same tax month or quarter.

If your Class 1 NICs are more than £45,000 in the relevant tax year, you can recover 92 per cent of all payments of ASPP made in the same tax month or quarter.

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Advance funding for ASPP

If you don't have sufficient payroll deductions available to cover the ASPP you're entitled to recover, you may be able to apply for funding from HMRC. Follow the link below for more information.

Get help with statutory payments funding

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Help and advice

Follow the links below to find out more about ASPP.

Additional Statutory Paternity Pay - eligibility forms and records

Download E19, 'Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay' (PDF 643K)

Alternatively you get advice from HMRC's Employer Helpline.

Find contact details for HMRC's Employer Helpline

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