Get financial help with statutory pay

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1. What you can reclaim

As an employer, you can usually reclaim 92% of employees’ Statutory Maternity, Statutory Paternity, Statutory Adoption, Statutory Parental Bereavement and Statutory Shared Parental Pay.

This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).

You can reclaim 103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You get this if you paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 National Insurance (ignoring any reductions like Employment Allowance) in the last complete tax year before:

  • the ‘qualifying week’ - the 15th week (Sunday to Saturday) before the week of the due date
  • the ‘matching week’ - the week (Sunday to Saturday) your employee was told they’d been matched with a child by the adoption agency
  • the date on the official notification if your employee is adopting a child from another country
  • the ‘qualifying week’ - the week (Sunday to Saturday) before the death of the child or stillbirth, for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay

How to reclaim

Calculate how much you’ll get back using your payroll software. To reclaim the payments, include them in an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

You can write to the PAYE Employer Office to ask for a repayment if you cannot set off the payments against the current year’s liabilities. You cannot do this until the start of the next tax year.

National Insurance Contributions and Employers Office
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1BX

2. If you cannot afford to make payments

You can apply for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to pay you in advance if you cannot afford to make statutory payments.

How to apply for advance payment

Apply online to be paid in advance for:

  • Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
  • Statutory Paternity Pay
  • Statutory Adoption Pay
  • Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)

You can apply up to 4 weeks before you want the first payment - HMRC may return your application if you apply earlier.

There’s a different way to apply for an advance for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay.

You can be charged a penalty (up to £3,000 per employee for each tax year) if you include incorrect information in your application.

Paying back your advance payment

Send an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for each pay period you reclaim statutory payments - even if you got an advance payment from HMRC to cover statutory payments to your employees.

If the statutory payments you reclaim are more than your PAYE deductions for that month, HMRC will automatically use what’s left to reduce what you owe on your advance payment.

Example

You have £2,500 in PAYE deductions to pay after sending your Full Payment Submission (FPS).

You reclaim £3,000 in statutory payments in your EPS.

Your advance payment will be reduced by £500 (£3,000 minus £2,500).

If you still owe HMRC anything at the end of the period the advance covers, pay them by that month’s normal payment date.

Advance funding for previous tax years

To apply for advance funding for a statutory payment relating to a previous tax year that you’ve not paid yet, write to HMRC.

HM Revenue and Customs
Corporate Treasury
BX9 1BG

What to include in your application

You’ll need your HMRC account information, including your Accounts Office reference and your PAYE reference. 

You can find these either:

Details of your application:

  • the name and National Insurance number of the employee you’re making the statutory payments to
  • the date the employee started employment with you (in TUPE cases the date they started employment with the business, not the date you took over)
  • the dates your claim relates to
  • details of any reduction to your monthly or quarterly payments that you’ve made
  • the total you’re entitled to reclaim
  • the amount you’re claiming advance funding for

Specific information for the relevant statutory payment:

  • for maternity and adoption pay, the expected date of birth or adoption
  • for paternity pay, the actual date of birth or adoption
  • for adoption pay, whether the adoption is in the UK or overseas
  • for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay, the date the mother or joint adopter returns to work and stops getting Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance or Statutory Adoption Pay

You should also include:

  • the date your business started (in TUPE cases, the date the business started, not the date you took over)
  • your contact details - for example name, telephone number
  • details of the bank account you’d like HMRC to pay into - include sort code, account name and number (or building society roll number)

If you’re insolvent

HMRC will pay Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption or Parental Bereavement Pay if your employees were getting these payments when you become insolvent.

HMRC will also pay maternity pay for pregnant employees who have passed the qualifying week but have not started getting SMP.

You (or someone else like the administrator or liquidator) must contact the National Insolvency Unit and tell them you’re insolvent.

National Insolvency Unit Helpline
Telephone: 0300 0540 808
Monday to Thursday, 8:30am to 5pm
Friday, 8:30am to 4pm
Find out about call charges

You must also tell your employee to contact the Statutory Payment Disputes Team.