Paternity Leave Explained

5 minute read

Updated April 2024

Note: this is not legal advice, please don’t rely on it!

It might be your COO; it might be your newest recruit; it might be you. It might be your first year of trading or your fifth. But at some point, it’ll happen: a request for paternity leave.

The UK government doesn’t give fathers much of a break when it comes to paternity leave and paternity pay. We know from research and experience that the minimum that is offered isn’t much to shout about (more on that below). It’s even less to ensure that you attract and retain the talent you’ve worked so hard to develop.

Which makes building a paternity leave policy a golden opportunity for you to be market-leading, lauded by your employees, and searched out by future talent.

JustParent is a way for you to offer great parental leave without the stress around potentially huge costs.

But, if JustParent isn't for you yet, and you're building the policy for your company yourself, we’re still passionate about everyone getting it right.

To help you out, we’ve outlined your basic rights and responsibilities as an employer when it comes to statutory paternity leave and pay in the UK. To add that extra helpful sparkle, the technical details are broken down into watch outs and bits you really need to pay attention to.

Consider us your new-parent leave fairy.

We want more companies to do new-parent leave right.

What’s the UK statutory allowance for paternity leave and pay?

It’s short and not-so-sweet here. As an employer, you have a legal responsibility to allow all eligible partners who are taking time off to look after a child:

• to take up to 2 weeks off (Statutory Paternity Leave)
  This leave can start anytime in the first year after birth. It’s the father’s choice whether he takes 1 or 2 weeks. They must be taken in week-long blocks, but they don’t need to be consecutive.

• to be paid for this time off (Statutory Paternity Pay)
  UK Statutory Paternity Pay is either £184.03 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings - whichever is lower. Tax and National Insurance still need to be deducted from this. The government will reimburse you 92% of this outlay.

• to attend 2 antenatal appointments with the baby’s mother (this is unpaid, however).
  These can be up to 6 ½ hours long each.

• to have their employment rights safeguarded during this time
  For instance, holiday leave is still accrued during any time off, and the employee has the right to return to the same role they left. In addition, you still have to pay Statutory Paternity Pay even if your company stops trading.
  As an employer you are obliged to make sure your paternity policy is clear and accessible to staff.
  There are different rules around premature births, stillbirth, and miscarriage.

Is that it?

Unfortunately, yes. Partners on paternity leave can also be paid more than this and take a longer leave period if they and their partner choose to use Shared Parental Leave instead of Paternity Leave (they can’t have both). You as an employer are also free to offer a much better deal in terms of paternity leave and pay if you choose to include it in your parental leave policy.

Who’s eligible for this?

The prospective parent must be your employee (rather than a worker) with a wage of above £123/week, give you notice of entitlement at least 15 weeks before the baby is due, they also need to give at least 28 days’ notice of the leave they intend to take, and have been employed by you continuously for at least 26 weeks before notice is given (so in effect, the baby was conceived whilst the partner was working for your company).

Surrogacy laws are a little different, as are those around adoption.

Who’s paying?

As with Statutory Maternity Pay, you are usually entitled to reclaim 92% of employees’ Statutory Paternity Pay from HMRC, and 103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You can also ask for assistance if you cannot afford to make Statutory Paternity Pay payments through an online application for advance payment from HMRC.

What’s the process for employers?

In summary, you pay your employees for their time off, and with the right record-keeping, the government will pay you the majority of it back. To make sure this happens, the following needs to take place:

• Partners requesting leave must declare their eligibility and legitimate purpose 15 weeks before the due date.

• They’ll then need to complete this online form and print out a copy for you.

• If you don’t think the employee is eligible, you’ll need to complete form SPP1 and give this to them within 28 days (keep a copy for your records, too). If they challenge this, you have around 7 working days to give them a written explanation.

• To reclaim the money paid out to employees as Statutory Paternity Pay, you must calculate how much you are due to receive back from HMRC via your payroll software and then include these figures in an Employer Payment Summary, which you send to HMRC alongside your monthly Full Payment Submission.

• This should be done by whoever deals with HR or payroll for you.

• You need to keep a record for HMRC for at least 3 tax years of the date Statutory Paternity Pay started, the paternity payments you’ve made (including dates), the payments you’ve reclaimed from HMRC, information about any weeks you did not pay and why.

• You can keep these records using a system of your own, or by using form SPP2.

🔑 Key point: men get a pretty paltry 1-2 weeks’ Paternity Leave, mainly paid for by HMRC.

👀 Watchouts: unlike mothers, partners don’t need to show you proof of pregnancy or birth.

📄 Documents: this (weirdly unnamed) online form is the only statutorily required one - your employee needs to complete it and give you a copy. You need to record the leave and pay period using form SPP2 or your own record-keeping system if you prefer. If you don’t think your employee is eligible, complete and give them form SPP1 instead.

💡 Need to know: your own paternity policy and your employee’s own terms of employment; the date Statutory Paternity Pay started, the paternity payments you’ve made (including dates), the payments you’ve reclaimed from HMRC, information about any weeks you did not pay and why.

So...

Yup - it’s a pretty rubbish offer.

And this is better than it used to be - paternity leave in any form has only been a statutory right in the UK since 2003. But we still don’t think it’s good enough. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. JustParent wants to help gold-plate your offer and give men and partners the time and financial support they need to engage with and enjoy their tiny new family members.

Join us.

📖 Note on language

We've chosen our words based on the government's policy playbook to avoid ambiguity - with the caveat that we know that families come in all shapes and sizes. We believe parents are whoever loves and cares for a child. But for the sake of clarity:

• 'maternity' or 'mother' refers to the pregnant woman - the biological mother (including surrogates)

• 'paternity' or 'father' can refer to the baby's father; the husband or partner of the mother (or adopter) - this includes same-sex partners; the child’s adopter; or the intended parent (if you’re having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement)

📖 Note on accuracy

We have provided this as a helpful way to navigate the UK rules, but please don’t rely on it to make business decisions. Seek professional advice if you need it.

Also note that the UK rules might change quicker than we can update the information. The top of the page shows when we last updated the information.

If you spot anything that you think we’ve got wrong, or has since changed, please let us know, and you’ll be our bff.