Parental bereavement pay
Parental bereavement pay recap
On 6 April 2020 statutory parental bereavement leave (SPBL) and statutory parental bereavement pay (SPBP) were introduced in respect of the death of a child, or stillbirth from week 24 of pregnancy, for parents in England, Wales and Scotland. SPBL and SPBP were finally extended to parents in Northern Ireland from 6 April 2022 onwards.
Entitlement. Bereaved parents are entitled to one or two weeks of leave. As long as they have at least 26 weeks’ service at the date of death and earn on average £123 per week (£533 per month), they are entitled to a flat rate of £156.66 per week (2022/23) or 90% of their average weekly earnings if lower.
Who’s eligible?
“Bereaved parent” is defined widely to capture those who may not be the child’s legal or biological parents but are the “primary carer” of the child where their relationship is “parental” in nature. Parents include the biological parents, adoptive parents (but then not the biological ones unless they have continuing contact), partners of biological or adoptive parents as long as there is an “enduring family relationship”, parents of a child received via a surrogacy arrangement, a “parent in fact” (a new definition where a child has lived with someone for four weeks prior to death (unless a person with parental responsibility is also present). Foster parents paid an allowance by a local authority can also qualify.
Pro advice. If you’re unsure whether a person qualifies, check by calling the HMRC employer helpline on 0300 200 3200.
Pro advice. When an employee is not eligible for SPBP, or ceases to be eligible, you need to issue them with a Form SPBP1 (see Follow up ). This can be completed online then printed off.
How should parents notify you?
An employee has 56 weeks to take SPBL. This starts from the date of the child’s death.
0 to 8 weeks. Where the leave is to be taken within eight weeks of the child’s death or stillbirth, the parent only needs to give notice before the employee would normally start work on the first day of the time off.
9 to 56 weeks. In this case, the parent should give you one week’s notice to give you some certainty as to when the employee will be absent so that you can make cover arrangements if required.
Format of notice. The parent will need to give you the date of the child’s death or stillbirth, when they would like the SPBL to start and how much leave they are taking - either one or two weeks.
Pro advice. There’s no requirement for the notice to be given in writing. There’s also no requirement for the parent to provide evidence of the death or stillbirth.
Calculating SPBP
You need to pay SPBP in full weeks, it’s not a daily payment. One two-week period or two separate weeks can be taken, and a week can begin on any day of the week. For monthly paid employees it’s possible to split an SPBP week over the end of one period and the start of the next.
Example. An SPBP week that begins on 30 May 2022 could have two days paid in the June pay period and five days in the first week of June, i.e. 2/7ths in one month and 5/7ths in the next. So, the employee would receive £44.76 of SPBP in May (2/7th x £156.66) and £111.90 in June.
Can you recover SPBP?
Yes - you can reclaim at least 92% of the amount you pay in the same way that you would recover statutory maternity pay (SMP).
Pro advice. You can recover 103% if your business qualifies for small employers’ relief, i.e. it paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 NI in the last complete tax year before the qualifying week (the week Sunday to Saturday) before the death of the child or stillbirth.
Can the parent claim SMP too?
SMP takes priority over SPBP so, for example, an employee who is on maternity leave should complete this first and can then take one or two weeks of SPBL afterwards - this is why there is a 56-week window rather than a 52-week one so that maternity leave doesn’t need to be interrupted.
SPBP1 form
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