Statutory Paternity Pay: manually calculate your employee’s payments
Use this if your payroll software or the GOV.UK calculator does not calculate your employee’s payments.
Terminology explained
Matching date (MD)
The date when the adoption agency told your employee that they had been matched with a child.
Matching week (MW)
The week (Sunday to Saturday) when the adoption agency told your employee that they had been matched with a child.
Week baby due
The week in which the expected date of the baby’s birth falls, starting with the preceding Sunday and ending on the following Saturday. If the birth falls on a Sunday, that date is the first day in the week baby due.
Qualifying week (QW)
The QW is the 15th week (Sunday to Saturday) before the week baby due.
Before you begin
You need the following information to calculate your employee’s Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP):
- for SPP — the declaration of family commitment signed by your employee — form SC3, SC4, SC5 or your own version
- the date your employee intends to stop work
- your employee’s gross pay and the dates they were paid
- the date your employee started working for you
- confirmation that your employee’s gross earnings are liable to employer’s Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) or would be but for their age or level of earnings
Calculate Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)
AWE must include all earnings on which Class 1 NICs:
- are due
- would be due if the earnings were high enough
SPP entitlement depends on your employee’s AWE in a ‘relevant period’. For the tax year 2024 to 2025 the AWE must be £123 or more. Divide all the earnings paid in the relevant period by the number of days, weeks or months in that period.
The relevant period (births)
This is usually the 8-week period before the QW.
The end of the relevant period is the last normal payday on, or before, the Saturday of the QW. If the baby is born before or during the QW, the relevant period will end on the date the baby is born.
The start of the relevant period is the day after the last normal payday falling at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period.
Example weekly paid employee
Baby due on 24 March 2025:
| QW | Payday | Last payday at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period | Last payday on or before the Saturday of the QW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 December 2024 to 14 December 2024 | Friday | 18 October 2024 | 13 December 2024 |
The relevant period is 19 October 2024 to 13 December 2024.
Add up all the earnings paid between 19 October 2024 and 13 December 2024 and divide by 8 (the number of weeks in the relevant period).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
Example monthly paid employee
Baby due on 24 March 2025:
| QW | Payday | Last payday at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period | Last payday on or before the Saturday of the QW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 December 2024 to 14 December 2024 | Last working day of the month | 30 September 2024 | 29 November 2024 |
The relevant period is 1 October 2024 to 29 November 2024.
You need to:
- Add up all the earnings paid between 1 October 2024 and 29 November 2024.
- Divide by 2 (the number of months in the relevant period).
- Multiply by 12 (number of months in the year).
- Divide by 52 (number of weeks in the year).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
The relevant period (adoption)
This is usually the 8 week period before the MW.
The end of the relevant period is the last normal payday on or before the Saturday of the MW.
The start of the relevant period is the day after the last normal payday falling at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period.
Example — weekly paid employee (adoption)
Matching date is 5 December 2024:
| MW | Payday | Last payday at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period | Last payday on or before the Saturday of the MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 December 2024 to 6 December 2024 | Friday | 11 October 2024 | 6 December 2024 |
The relevant period is 12 October 2024 to 6 December 2024.
Add up all the earnings paid during the relevant period and divide by 8 (the number of weeks in the relevant period).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
Example — monthly paid employee (adoption)
Matching date is 7 December 2024:
| MW | Payday | Last payday at least 8 weeks before the end of the relevant period | Last payday on or before the Saturday of the MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 December 2023 to 9 December 2023 | Last day of month | 30 September 2024 | 29 November 2024 |
The relevant period is 1 October 2024 to 29 November 2024.
You need to:
- Add up all the earnings paid in the relevant period.
- Divide by 2 (the number of months in the relevant period).
- Multiply by 12 (number of months in the year).
- Divide by 52 (number of weeks in the year).
Do not round the figure up or down to whole pence.
Weekly paid employees without a whole number of weeks in the relevant period
This may happen if you bring forward your employee’s normal payday because of bank holidays, for example at Easter or Christmas. Divide the earnings by the number of weeks wages were actually paid, not the number of weeks in the relevant period.
Employees paid multiples of a week
This may happen if you pay your employee fortnightly or 4 weekly. Divide the earnings by the number of whole weeks in the relevant period.
Monthly paid employees without a whole number of months in the relevant period
Work out the number of rounded months as follows:
- count the number of whole months
- count the numbers of odd days
Round up or down as follows:
- February — 14 days or less round down, 15 days or more round up
- any month except February — 15 days or less round down, 16 days or more round up
Divide the earnings by this number of rounded months.
Employees not paid in a regular pay pattern
Divide the earnings by the number of days in the relevant period and multiply by 7.
Mistimed payments
This only applies to regular payments of earnings paid other than on their normal date, for example due to a bank holiday.
A mistimed payment:
- occurs when the date of the actual payment of earnings is earlier or later than the normal contractual payday, such as an annual holiday
- should not be confused with a payroll error, where a mistake is made in the payroll resulting in a shortfall of pay, when working out the AWE in the relevant period
Divide the total earnings in the relevant period by the number of weeks wages were actually paid.
Overpayment or underpayment of earnings made during the relevant period
Always calculate AWE on all earnings actually paid within the relevant period. Where over or under payments of wages occur within the relevant period, include the overpaid or underpaid amount in the AWE calculation to decide if SPP is due.
Salary sacrifice
If an employee has entered into a salary sacrifice with you their AWE is calculated using the amount of earnings actually paid to them after the sacrifice during the relevant period.
Contractual benefits
The calculation of AWE for SSP is based only on earnings which are subject to Class 1 NICs. Do not include the value of any benefits which are exempt from class 1 NICs (such as some childcare vouchers in your calculation.
Earnings in the relevant period affected by a backdated pay rise
If your employee receives a backdated pay rise which increases the amount of earnings already paid in the relevant period and was either:
- not entitled to SPP
- entitled to SPP at less than the standard rate
You must recalculate their AWE to check if they are:
- now entitled, and pay any SPP due
- entitled to an increase and pay any extra SPP due
Calculate SPP
SPP is a weekly payment. It lasts for 1 or 2 complete weeks and the 2 weeks must be consecutive.
You must pay your employee the lower weekly rate of:
- £184.03 from 7 April 2024
- 90% of their AWE
The SPP period starts the day after the last day your employee worked before starting their paternity leave.
SPP weeks start with the first day of the pay period. For example an SPP period which starts on a Wednesday will have pay weeks within the pay period which run from Wednesday to the following Tuesday.
SPP paid part-weekly
You can pay SSP as part weeks to help you align your payments to your employee’s normal pay period.
You can split the weekly rate into 2 parts. If you do this, you will make the calculation on the basis of dividing the weekly rate by 7.
For example, the pay period for a monthly paid employee covers 2 days in April and 5 days in May. Their employer should pay them two-sevenths in April and five-sevenths in May.
Help and advice
You can get advice from HMRC Employer Helpline.
Updates to this page
Published 18 March 2014Last updated 6 April 2024 + show all updates
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The rate of weekly earnings needed to be eligible for Statutory Paternity Pay in the 2024 to 2025 tax year has been added. The examples in this guide have been updated.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2023 to 2024.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2022 to 2023. We have removed the section on employees who were on furlough under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).
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Calculate Average Weekly Earnings has been updated to provide current dates for weekly paid and monthly paid employee.
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Information added on how to work out Average Weekly Earnings for employees furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2019 to 2020.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2018 to 2019.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2017 to 2018.
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Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2016 to 2017.
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First published.