This article explains each part of an employee's paternity pay claim: the leave dates, the employer's occupational (top-up) pay, and statutory paternity pay (SPP). For how claims are created, who can edit them and what the icons do, see Parental payments.
Paternity claims work in the same way as maternity claims, with three differences:
Each claim is either a birth claim or an adoption claim
Paternity leave can't start before the birth or placement
There are no keep-in-touch days.
1. Paternity claims list
Open the employee's record and click Parental payments > Paternity pay. Each row is one claim, newest first. Figures that payroll calculates show a dash until payroll has run.
Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
Leave start / Leave end | The employee's paternity leave. |
Pay period start / Pay period end | The paternity pay period: the weeks SPP can be paid for. Employees can take 1 or 2 weeks' paternity leave. |
Weeks paid / Amount paid | The weeks and amount of SPP paid so far. |
Recovered | The amount of SPP you can reclaim from HMRC. |
NI compensation | The extra amount that employers who qualify for Small Employers' Relief can reclaim, as compensation for employer National Insurance. |
Click anywhere on the row to open the claim page. Click the calendar icon to view the payment schedule report (see 5. Payment schedule report).
If paternity leave is deleted after SPP has been paid for it, the claim stays on the list rather than being deleted, so the payment history isn't lost.
HMRC lets employees take 2 weeks' paternity leave as two separate weeks. Two separate weeks would use two separate claims.
2. Paternity leave dates
On the claim page, click Paternity dates. These dates decide whether SPP can be paid, and when.
Each claim is either a birth claim or an adoption claim, shown in Leave type. This is set when the claim is created and can't be changed. The dates you see depend on the leave type.
Paternity leave after a birth
Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Paternity leave requested | The date the employee told you they wanted to take paternity leave. Employees must normally tell you by the end of the 15th week before the week the baby is due. |
SC3 received | The date you received the employee's SC3 form, which is their declaration that they're entitled to SPP. |
Expected date of birth | Sets the week the baby is due, which is used to work out the earnings period (see 8. Relevant earnings). |
Actual date of birth | The date the baby was born. Paternity leave can't start before this date. |
Stillbirth date | Only for a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The employee is still entitled to SPP. |
Paternity leave start / Paternity leave end | The employee can take 1 or 2 weeks. The leave must start on or after the birth, and finish within 52 weeks of it. |
Notified of return to work | The date the employee told you they're returning to work. This does not affect the SPP. |
Paternity leave after an adoption
For adoption claims, some of the fields found above will change.
Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
SC4/SC5 received | The date you received the employee's SC4 form (UK adoption) or SC5 form (overseas adoption), which is their declaration that they're entitled to SPP. |
Match notified | The date the adopter was told they'd been matched with a child. This is used to work out the earnings period. |
Child expected / Child placed | The date the child is expected to be placed, and the date they were placed. Paternity leave can't start before the placement. |
To change the dates, click the pencil icon. For birth claims, SC3 received, Expected date of birth, Actual date of birth, Paternity leave start and Paternity leave end must be completed. If you change the leave start or end, the paternity pay period moves with it.
If you see "Leave cannot start before the child is born" (or "placed"), move the leave start to on or after the birth or placement date. If you see "Ordinary paternity leave must be at least one whole week", the leave is shorter than seven days, so extend the leave end.
Unlike maternity claims, paternity claims have no keep-in-touch days.
3. Paternity pay schedule
Click Paternity pay schedule to see the employer's occupational paternity pay: any top-up the employer pays on top of SPP.
Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Payment scheme | The employer's occupational paternity pay scheme, which sets how many weeks are paid at full pay, half pay and so on. Schemes are set up in Cintra iQ. |
Post for pension purposes | The employee's pensionable post. This field only appears if you run pensions in Cintra People Payroll. |
Leave start / End | The leave dates from the Paternity dates tab. |
Annual salary / Weekly salary | The salary the occupational pay is worked out from. |
Pay partial weeks | Switch on to pay part weeks, typically so the employee is paid by calendar month. A part week is worked out by dividing the weekly rate by seven and multiplying by the number of calendar days, whatever the employee's working pattern. This matches how HMRC calculates SPP. If it's switched off, only whole weeks are paid. |
To change these settings, click the pencil icon and click Save. Saving doesn't update the weekly payments or salary figures. To apply the new settings, click Refresh schedule.
4. Weekly payments
Below the pay schedule, Weekly payments shows each week of the pay period, with its payment band (for example, full pay or SPP only), the statutory and occupational amounts, and the annual salary used. Overridden weeks are flagged in the Overridden column.
You can override a week when it should be paid at a different annual rate, for example after a pay change. Click the pencil icon on the week, enter the Annual rate override and click OK. To apply the same rate to every week after it, switch on Apply to remaining weeks. To remove an override, open the week and click Reset to derived value.
When you apply a rate to the remaining weeks, each week is saved separately. If some can't be saved, you're told which ones, and the rest keep the new rate.
Overrides are cleared if anyone clicks Refresh schedule.
5. Payment schedule report
Click the calendar icon to open the payment schedule report. It shows the whole leave, week by week: the salary basis, a summary of each payment band, and the weekly schedule grouped by pay date, with subtotals and a grand total. Click Save as PDF to download it, for example to give the employee a record of what they'll be paid.
The calendar icon is greyed out if the claim has no occupational pay schedule.
6. SPP payments
Click Statutory paternity pay (SPP) > SPP payments. The SPP summary shows the pay period, average weekly earnings, and the weeks and amounts due, paid and recoverable. Other fields include:
Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Pay SPP up to | The date SPP has been paid up to. Whether each pay period pays up to the end of the period or the last whole week before it is set at employer level. You can change this date for a period in 9. SPP payments per payroll period. |
SPP weeks excluded | Weeks where SPP isn't payable, for example after an exclusion stop date (see 7. Exclusion reasons). |
SPP recoverable / NIC compensation | The amounts you can reclaim from HMRC (see 1. Paternity claims list). |
SPP is paid at HMRC's weekly rate, or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings if that's lower. Unlike SMP, there's no higher-rate period at the start. For the current rate, see Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave: employer guide on GOV.UK.
Below the summary, Weeks in paternity pay period (PPP) lists each week with its SPP amount. To recalculate the weeks straight away, click the calculator icon (Calculate statutory pay). It runs without asking you to confirm, and the summary figures may change.
To override a week's SPP amount, click the pencil icon on the week, then enter the amount and a reason (up to 100 characters). To remove an override, reset the week to the derived amount.
To download the weeks to a spreadsheet, click the Export icon. 
7. Exclusion reasons
If SPP can't be paid for a claim, or has to stop part-way through, record the reason under SPP settings > SPP exclusion reasons. Click the pencil icon and select a reason from Exclusion reason. The reasons come from HMRC's SPP1 form, which is why they're worded as if you're talking to the employee.
Reason | Stop date needed? |
|---|---|
A: You were not employed by me for long enough | Set by the calculation. You can't select it. |
B: You did not tell me soon enough that you would be away from work | No |
C: You did not give me acceptable evidence of your entitlement soon enough | No |
E: You worked for me or another employer during the Paternity Pay Period | Yes |
F: Your earnings were too low | Set by the calculation. You can’t select it. |
For reason E, enter the date SPP stops in SPP stopped from. It must fall within the paternity pay period. If it doesn't, you'll see "Enter a date that falls within the Paternity pay period", followed by the dates of the period.
Once saved, the claim page shows an Excluded badge and a banner saying SPP isn't payable, or when it stops. To remove an exclusion, click Clear exclusion, then Save.
8. Relevant earnings
SPP is based on the employee's average weekly earnings over a set period before the baby is due. SPP settings > Relevant earnings shows how this was worked out.
Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Saturday of the 15th week before the week baby is due | The cut-off HMRC uses for the earnings period. Earnings paid after this date don't count. |
First day of set period / Last day of set period | The pay period the earnings are taken from: normally the 8 weeks, or 2 monthly pay days, up to the last normal pay day on or before that Saturday. |
Earnings in the set period | The employee's earnings in the set period. |
Average weekly earnings | The earnings in the set period converted to a weekly figure. The employee must earn at least the Lower Earnings Limit to qualify for SPP. |
For adoption claims, the set period is worked out from the week the adopter was told they'd been matched with a child, rather than the week the baby is due.
To override the average weekly earnings, click the pencil icon, enter the figure and click Save.
An overridden figure shows an Override label, and stays fixed when payroll is recalculated.
9. SPP payments per payroll period
SPP settings > SPP payments per payroll period shows what each payroll period paid: the date SPP was paid up to, the weeks and amount of SPP, and the SPP offset (SPP can be offset against other gross pay at employer level).
To change the date a period has paid SPP up to, click the pencil icon on the row. You'd do this, for example, when an employee leaves during their paternity pay period. Change the pay-up-to date on the latest period to the date SPP should be paid up to, so the remaining SPP is included in their final pay. Do this before you make them a leaver.
