Get financial help with statutory pay

What you can reclaim

As an employer, you can usually reclaim 92% of employees’ Statutory Maternity (SMP), Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Pay.

You can reclaim 103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You get this if you paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 National Insurance in the last complete tax year before:

• the ‘qualifying week’ - the 15th week (Sunday to Saturday) before the week of the due date
• the ‘matching week’ - the week (Sunday to Saturday) your employee was told they’d been matched with a child by the adoption agency
• the date on the official notification if your employee is adopting a child from another country

How to reclaim

Calculate how much you’ll get back using your payroll software. To reclaim the payments, include them in an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

You can write to the PAYE Employer Office to ask for a repayment if you can’t set off the payments against the current year’s liabilities.

If you can't afford to make payments

You can apply for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to pay you in advance if you can’t afford to make statutory payments.

How to apply for advance payment

Apply for advance payment by using the appropriate form on the HMRC website:

• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
• Statutory Paternity Pay
• Additional Statutory Paternity Pay
• Statutory Adoption Pay
• Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)

You can apply up to 4 weeks before you want the first payment - HMRC may return your application if you apply earlier.

Paying back your advance payment

Send an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for each pay period you reclaim statutory payments - even if you got an advance payment from HMRC to cover statutory payments to your employees.

If the statutory payments you reclaim are more than your PAYE deductions for that month, HMRC will automatically use what’s left to reduce what you owe on your advance payment.

If you still owe HMRC anything at the end of the period the advance covers, pay them by that month’s normal payment date.

Advance funding for previous tax years

To apply for advance funding for a statutory payment relating to a previous tax year that you’ve not paid yet, write to your HMRC Accounts Office for PAYE.

You can also send your application by fax.

What to include in your application

Your HMRC account information:

• your Accounts Office name - Cumbernauld or Shipley
• your Accounts Office reference - you’ll find this on the cover of your P30BC payment booklet or P30B letter ‘Paying PAYE electronically’
• your PAYE reference - you’ll also find this on your P30BC payment booklet, or letter headed ‘New employer registration and reference numbers’

Details of your application:

• the name and National Insurance number of the employee you’re making the statutory payments to
• the date the employee started employment with you (in TUPE cases the date they started employment with the business, not the date you took over)
• the dates your claim relates to
• details of any reduction to your monthly or quarterly payments that you’ve made
• the total you’re entitled to reclaim
• the amount you’re claiming advance funding for

Specific information for the relevant statutory payment:

• for maternity and adoption pay, the expected date of birth or adoption
• for paternity pay, the actual date of birth or adoption
• for adoption pay, whether the adoption is in the UK or overseas
• for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay, the date the mother or joint adopter returns to work and stops getting Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance or Statutory Adoption Pay

You should also include:

• the date your business started (in TUPE cases, the date the business started, not the date you took over)
• your contact details - eg name, telephone number
• details of the bank account you’d like HMRC to pay into - include sort code, account name and number (or building society roll number)

If you’re insolvent

HMRC will pay Statutory Maternity, Paternity or Adoption Pay if your employees were getting these payments when you become insolvent.

HMRC will also pay maternity pay for pregnant employees who have passed the qualifying week but haven’t started getting SMP.

You (or someone else like the administrator or liquidator) must contact the National Insolvency Unit and tell them you’re insolvent.

You must also tell your employee to call the Statutory Payment Disputes Team.