In this section:
- Statutory Sick Pay: an overview
- Calculating and recovering Statutory Sick Pay
- Statutory Maternity Pay: an overview
- Calculating and recovering Statutory Maternity Pay
- Statutory Paternity Pay: an overview
- Calculating and recovering Statutory Paternity Pay
- Statutory Adoption Pay: an overview
- Calculating and recovering Statutory Adoption Pay
Calculating and recovering Statutory Paternity Pay
Your employee may be entitled to Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) if their partner has a baby or adopts a child. This replaces their normal earnings and helps them take time off to care for the child or support the mother.
You may be able to recover some or all of the SPP you pay. How much you’ll recover depends on your annual Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) bill.
Your payroll software may work out your SPP payments and how much you can recover. Or you can use the SPP calculator on HMRC’s Employer CD-ROM and website.
You can also calculate SPP manually, using SPP tables, but using payroll software or HMRC’s SPP calculator saves time and helps avoid mistakes.
On this page:
- Information you'll need to work out SPP
- Calculating and recovering SPP using an HMRC calculator
- Calculating SPP manually
- Calculating SPP recovery manually
- Advance funding for SPP
- SPP and salary sacrifice schemes
- Help and advice
Information you'll need to work out SPP
Whichever method you use to work out SPP and recovery of SPP you’ll need to gather together the same information.
Information needed to calculate SPP
Before you can start to calculate your employee’s SPP, you’ll need:
- the declaration of family commitment signed by your employee - form SC3 or your own version
- the date your employee intends to stop work
- your employee's gross pay and the dates it was paid in the ‘set period’ (for a definition please read E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for Statutory Paternity Pay’ – link below)
- the date your employee started working for you
- confirmation that your employee's gross earnings are liable to employer’s Class 1 NICs
Information needed to work out what you can recover
To work out how much of the SPP payments you can recover you’ll need to know:
- the amount of SPP you’re liable to pay - this is worked out automatically if you use our SPP calculator or commercial software that has its own SPP calculator
- how much your Class 1 NICs (employer’s and employees’) were for the ‘relevant tax year’ - you can get this figure from your Employer Annual Return form P35
The later section ‘Calculating SPP recovery manually’ 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 SPP using an HMRC calculator
HMRC's SPP calculator works out how much SPP you’ll have to pay and how much you can recover. It’s easy to use and does everything for you. You’ll find it:
- on the Employer CD-ROM
- on HMRC's website
Both the CD-ROM and the online version of the calculator work in the same way. They’ll work out for you:
- whether your employee is entitled to be paid SPP
- the amount of SPP you should pay
- how much you can recover
You can print the figures worked out by the SPP calculator so they're ready to enter in:
- the P11 Calculator on the CD-ROM
- your commercial software (but this may have its own SPP calculator)
- a paper form P11
HMRC sends you the Employer CD-ROM when you register as an employer and issue updates, usually twice a year. You can use HMRC's online ordering service to order further copies - simply enter how many you need, complete your contact details and click on ‘Order’.
Always check that you’re using the latest version of the CD-ROM, with up-to-date tables.
Use the online SPP calculator (birth)
Use the online SPP calculator (adoption – including adoption from abroad)
Find out how to record payments and deductions on form P11
Calculating SPP manually
If you want to calculate your SPP payments manually you’ll have to know how to work out:
- whether your employee has worked for you long enough
- whether they earn enough
- how much to pay them
If your employee’s entitled to SPP, you must pay them the lower of:
- £123.06 - from 6 April 2009
- 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings
You’ll find guidance on how to work out average weekly earnings in the E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for Statutory Paternity Pay’. See the section ‘Quick method for calculating Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)’.
Read E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for Statutory Paternity Pay’ (PDF 270K)
Calculating SPP recovery manually
How much SPP you can recover depends on the total amount of employer’s and employees’ Class 1 NICs you pay in the ‘relevant tax year’.
The ‘relevant tax year’ is the tax year immediately before the tax year in which the qualifying week falls – this being the 15th week before the baby is due.
| Due date of baby | Qualifying week (15 weeks before the baby’s due date) | Relevant tax year (precedes the tax year of the qualifying week) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 July 2009 | 17 March 2009 | 2007-08 |
| 1 January 2010 | 15 September 2009 | 2008-09 |
You’ll find the total of your employer’s and employees’ NICs for the tax year on your copy of form P35 Employer Annual Return.
If your annual liability for Class 1 NICs is £45,000 or less
If your Class 1 NICs are £45,000 or less in the relevant tax year, you can recover 104.5 per cent of your SPP payments. For 2009-10 this is made up of:
- 100 per cent of the SPP
- 4.5 per cent of the SPP - this is an additional amount as compensation for the employer’s Class 1 NICs you’ll have paid on the SPP
You can recover 104.5 per cent of the total of all payments of SPP made in the same tax month.
If your annual liability for Class 1 NICs is more than £45,000
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 SPP made in the same tax month.
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 SPP you can recover in the E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for 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.
E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for Statutory Paternity Pay’ (PDF 270K)
Advance funding for SPP
If you don't have sufficient payroll deductions available to cover the SPP 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
SPP and salary sacrifice schemes
If you provide benefits to your employees under a salary sacrifice scheme, this can have an impact on SPP. Follow the link below for guidance on this issue.
Find out about the impact of salary sacrifice arrangements on SPP (PDF 134K)
Help and advice
Follow the links below to find out more about SPP.
Statutory Paternity Pay - an overview
E19, ‘Employer Helpbook for Statutory Paternity Pay’ (PDF 270K)
Quick answers to common questions on SPP
If you still can’t find what you need, you can ask a question through HMRC’s email query service.
Use the SPP email query service
Alternatively you get advice from HMRC’s Employer Helpline on Tel 08457 143 143 (open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm from Monday to Friday and from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm on Saturday and Sunday).
