At PayFit, we know that supporting your employees through major life events is just as important as running accurate payrolls.
One area that often raises questions is Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP).
While PayFit doesn’t yet have a dedicated automated feature for SPL and ShPP, we can still help you process this via payroll.
What are SPL and ShPP?
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) allows eligible parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave during the first year after their child is born or placed for adoption. Alongside this, Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) provides up to 37 weeks of pay while on SPL.
The idea is to give families more flexibility. Parents can be off at the same time, take turns, or split leave and pay in blocks that suit them, as long as it’s all used within 52 weeks of birth or adoption placement.
Who is eligible?
Both parents need to meet certain conditions to qualify for Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP). Generally, they must:
Have worked for the same employer continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due (or before the adoption placement).
Still be employed by the same employer when they start SPL.
Be an employee, not a ‘worker’ or self-employed, to qualify for SPL (though they may still be able to share ShPP in some situations).
Meet minimum earnings requirements, earning at least £125 a week on average.
To get SPL and ShPP, an employee and their partner will need to:
Meet the eligibility criteria (note that there are different rules for birth parents, adoptive parents, or parents using a surrogate).
Give 8 weeks notice to their employers.
Give up some of their maternity or adoption leave and pay in order to share it as SPL and ShPP.
How ShPP works
Eligible parents can get ShPP for up to 37 weeks, paid at the statutory rate (or 90% of average weekly earnings if lower). Employers can choose to top this up if they wish, but it’s not required by law.
How to manage SPL and ShPP in PayFit
Currently, Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) cannot be automatically set up within PayFit. This is because, unlike other types of parental leave, SPL can be taken in flexible blocks of weeks which makes it a bit more complex to handle directly in the platform.
To help with this, we’ve developed a simple solution to gather the information we need from you and make sure your payroll stays accurate.
How to request a Shared Parental Leave calculation:
Contact our Support Team: Reach out to our friendly support team by raising a ticket.
Provide the details: We’ll ask you for some information about the employee taking SPL, plus details about their partner who’ll be sharing the leave.
Use our SPL template: We’ll send you a handy template to help you organise the details. You can download it using the link below.
Once we have all the information, our team will calculate the SPL and ShPP entitlement and help you enter this into your PayFit account correctly.
Useful resource: HMRC’s planner and calculator
To help work out leave and pay entitlements, HMRC provides a really handy Shared Parental Leave and Pay Planner, which you can find here.
It’s great for checking eligibility and planning how leave can be shared.
Need help?
If you’d like any support managing SPL and ShPP in PayFit, our Customer Care team is always here for you — just reach out!