Employers must make statutory payments to employees who meet the eligibility criteria. This includes statutory maternity pay (SMP), statutory paternity pay (SPP), statutory adoption pay (SAP), statutory shared parental pay (SSPP), statutory parental bereavement pay (SPBP), and statutory neonatal care pay (SNCP). From 6 April2026 onwards, all employees are entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day of their sickness absence.

For all statutory payments other than SSP, employers can claim some or all of the cost back from HMRC. The amount which can be claimed depends on the size of the employer.

From 6 April 2026 onwards, employers who qualify for Small Employers’ Relief can reclaim 109% of the cost of the statutory payments (other than SSP) that they make. For 2025/26, the amount was 108.5%. An employer is small if they paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 National Insurance (before deducting the Employment Allowance) in the last tax year before:

• the ‘qualifying week’, i.e. the 15thweek before the due date;

• the ‘matching week’ when an employee was told by the adoption agency they had been matched with a child;

• the date of the official notification where a child is adopted from another country;

• the ‘qualifying week’ before the death of a child; or

• the ‘relevant week’ before the child started to receive neonatal care unless the employee is entitled to SMP, SPP or SAP.

For these purposes a week runs from Sunday to Saturday.

Employers cannot recover the cost of SSP – they must meet it in full.

Making a claim

The employer should make their claim through their payroll software. The claim should be made in the Employer Payments Summary. Effect is given to the claim by deducting it from the amount of PAYE and National Insurance that the employer has to pay to HMRC.

Where the claim cannot be satisfied by offset against the current year’s PAYE and National Insurance liability, the employer can write to HMRC to ask for a repayment. The claim cannot be made until the start of the next tax year. The letter should be sent to:

National Insurance Contributions and Employers Office

HM Revenue and Customs

BX9 1BX.

Financial help

Employers who are struggling financially and cannot afford to make statutory payments to employees can apply in advance for help with paying statutory payments. An application for advance funding to pay SMP, SPP, SAP and SHPP can be made online up to four weeks before the employer needs to make the first payment. Applications for advance funding to pay SPBP or SNCP can also be made online through a separate system.

Employers must still send an EPS for each period that they reclaim statutory payments, even if they receive advanced funding. The advance funding will be reduced by any amount owing to HMRC.