Additional Paternity Pay (Birth)

ASPP has been introduced for qualifying employees whose spouse or partner has had a baby born on or after 3^rd April 2011.

ASPP is given to eligible fathers, partners or civil partners of mothers where there is entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) or Maternity Allowance (MA) and that payment has been brought to an end by the mother returning to work. The employee must be taking time off work to care for their child.

Payments of ASPP count as earnings. You must deduct tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from them in the usual way.

You will normally be able to recover some or all of the ASPP you pay.

PAYING ASPP

ASPP is paid to an employee by their employer in the same way as normal wages. ASPP is paid at the lower of:

• £128.73 or
• 90% of AWE

for pay weeks commencing on or after Sunday 3 April 2011.

The minimum period ASPP can be paid for is two weeks and it will cease when the SMP, MA or SAP period ends.

ASPP ends no later than the child's first birthday, 12 months after the date the child was placed with the adopter or 12 months after the date the child entered the UK.

ASPP is treated as normal pay and is subject to Tax and National Insurance as usual except Attachment of Earnings Orders or Deduction of Earnings Orders.

To claim Additional Statutory Paternity Pay an employee must tell the employer when they intend to take leave by the 8th week before the start of ASPP.

ENTITLEMENTS

ASPP FOR BIRTH 

Your employee and the child’s mother must both satisfy certain conditions for entitlement to ASPP.

EMPLOYEE

Your employee will satisfy the conditions for ASPP if:

• they are the child’s father, or if not the child’s father, they are the spouse, civil partner or partner of the mother
• they have, or expect to have, the main responsibility (apart from the mother) for the upbringing of the child
• they have been employed by you long enough
• they have normal earnings above the LEL in the relevant period
• they intend to care for the child during the ASPP period
• the mother satisfies her conditions
• the mother has completed and signed her declaration
• they have given a completed declaration to you

CHILD’S MOTHER

 The child’s mother must have:

• satisfied the conditions for entitlement to Statutory Paternity Pay (SMP) or Maternity Allowance (MA)
• taken action to return to work
• taken at least two weeks off work after the birth
• at least two weeks of her SMP or MA period remaining
• signed the declaration form SC7 to confirm they intend to return to work and will stop receiving SMP or MA.

ASPP AND ADDITIONAL PATERNITY LEAVE START AND END DATES

Your employee has the right to choose when they want to take pay and leave within a set period:

• The earliest start date is 20 weeks after the child’s birth.
• ASPP must end no later than the date the SMP or MA period ends.
• There must be at least two weeks SMP or MA remaining.
• Additional paternity leave (APL) cannot exceed 26 weeks, except in exceptional circumstances, and must end no later than the child’s first birthday.
• Your employee may take unpaid APL after the SMP or MA period ends.

RECOVERY OF ASPP

All employers are entitled to recover 92% of ASPP they pay, however, if the employer qualifies for Small Employers Relief, where the total NIC in the previous tax year was under £45,000, they can recover 100% of ASPP paid plus an additional 3% in compensation for payments made.

CALCULATING ASPP ON BRIGHT PAY

To access this utility, simply go to Payroll> and select the Employee on left:

1)     Under Statutory Pay, click Calendar

2)     On the Calendar, select the start date the employee is taking ASPP

3)     Select Additional Paternity Leave from the drop down menu at the bottom  right hand corner

4)     Click once on the Additional Paternity Leave button to bring up the ‘Additional Paternity Leave’ screen

5)     Under ‘Mother’s Statutory Maternity Pay/ Maternity Allowance’ enter the Baby Birth/ Due Date

6)     Enter the End Date of Mother’s SMP/ MA

7)     Under ‘Additional Paternity Leave Dates’ enter the employee’s Start of Leave date

8)     Select the employee’s Length of Leave from the drop down menu

9)     Under ‘Payment, Entitlement and Calculation’ select desired Payment Method from the drop down menu – a user can choose between ‘Use Statutory Pay Weeks’ or ‘Align to Normal Pay Period (Part-Weekly)’

10)  Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) - the program will automatically calculate the employee’s average weekly earnings for the purpose of calculating ASPP due.

The user can at their own discretion override the automatic calculation and manually enter an employee’s average weekly earnings. However it is recommended to seek advice from an accountant before doing so. To override the automatic calculation, simply untick the box and enter the amount. 

11)  Click Submit to save. The program will automatically update the calendar accordingly and apply the ASPP

OVERRIDING THE ‘AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS’ CALCULATION

If existing payment records have not been recorded in Bright Pay, the automatic calculation performed by the program after completing the above may be inaccurate. In the event of this occurring, the user may override the AWE by doing the following:

1)     On the main Payroll screen, click Edit icon in the employee’s Statutory Payments section

2)     In Parenting Pay, select the option ‘Use average weekly earnings’

3)     Enter the average weekly earnings amount for the employee, then click out of this box

4)     The program will now calculate ASPP based on the AWE manually entered by the user

EDITING LENGTH OF ADDITIONAL STATUTORY PATERNITY LEAVE

Should an employee wish to extend or reduce the length of their additional paternity leave, the length of leave already entered for the employee can be edited as follows:

1)     In Payroll, select the employee’s name on the left

2)     Under Statutory Pay, click on Calendar

3)     On the Calendar, select any date in advance of the current payroll date and which is currently marked as Additional Paternity Leave

4)     Within the Additional  Paternity Leave section that will appear to the right of the calendar, click Edit icon

5)     Amend the employee’s Length of Leave by selecting the number of weeks now applicable from the drop down menu

6)     Click Save Changes

7)     Close the Calendar to return to the main Payroll screen

Further information regarding the operation and calculation of Additional Statutory Paternity Pay can be found on the HMRC website or by consulting the HMRC Guide E19 (2011) Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay.