Statutory Paternity Pay is available for qualifying employees, all genders, whose partner is having a child, adopting a child, or having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement. It is available for one or two weeks and must be taken consecutively if both weeks are taken. It is paid at the lower rate of either 9/10ths earnings in the relevant period or the SPP rate in force for the tax year.

Paying SPP

To pay SPP you need to go to Employee Details Statutory Payment page. You will then need to click the Add button on the top right of the page, which will allow you to select SPP from the dropdown menu. Select the tick box to confirm if this is an adoption or not. Doing this will change the Baby's Due Date field to the Matching Date field.

Once you have completed the start date and either the baby's due date or matching date, the platform will automatically calculate the entitlement and pre-populate any amounts due.

The employee must have earned over the lower earnings limit (LEL) for the relevant period in order to be eligible for SPP. If you need to override the employee's earnings, you may be transferring payroll software mid-year. You need to tick this box and type the average weekly earnings figure in the box. You can then adjust the number of SPP weeks already paid to reduce the total SPP weeks payable.

If you click the View Log button, it will display the information used to calculate eligibility, including the employee's start date and average weekly earnings calculation. You can also decide if you want to reduce the basic pay by a statutory amount, do not pay basic pay, or pay basic pay as entered.

Helpful Hint

When selecting the Do Not Pay Basic Pay option, this removes the salary for the whole pay period. We will also list any payments due with the status of the payment, e.g. pending or processed.

Advanced settings

Under the Advanced Settings section, you have four options:

Set employer pension protection: Any figure entered here will override the employer's pension amount in the pay run.
Do not pay: If you select this option, you can choose a reason from the dropdown menu. It will then create a link to the SPP1 form for you to complete and give to your employees.
Pay lump sum: If you wish to pay SPP in one lump sum.
SPP Adjust: This can be used to apply any adjustment to SPP within the pay run, useful if a backdated pay rise has affected SPP amounts.

Final settings

You can then, if you wish, add an attachment and any notes to the employee's record. When you have saved this data, it will create an entry against the employee which can be edited by clicking on the button. You can delete the entry if no payments have been made by clicking the button and you can download a payment schedule in a PDF format or send it to the employee's payroll portal.

Payments will be applied automatically in each pay run and the record will be updated after the pay run has been finalised. To view the amount of SPP recovered from HMRC you need to go to Reports P32 Report, then click on the NI Deductions Summary tab.

Explore related content

How do I set up employee statutory maternity pay (SMP)? This Payroll classic article will walk you through setting up Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).
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