Most employees choose to tell their employers informally after the 12-week or 20-week pregnancy scan that they are expecting to take paternity leave. These regulations came into force on 1st October 2014 but are still quite unknown and many partners presume they don’t have such rights. My DP was in a job and would have been eligible for paternity leave, but then took a new job two months ago and won't have been there long enough to qualify for paternity leave (which would have been paid, I understand). You need to register with HMRC so you can pay tax and national insurance for your employees. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve government services. It might help you plan the time around your baby’s arrival in advance: for example, by saving holiday or negotiating a period to work from home if you have a long commute and would like to try and avoid it for a few weeks until you’ve adjusted to a lack of sleep.” – Charlotte, How can men prepare to return to work after paternity leave?“In the current climate, you may not have to return to the office. While the basic paternity leave rights are set out in the regulations, if the company has given a colleague more generous pay or allowed them to take additional paid leave, this could help you negotiate a better package for yourself. To do this send them form SPP1 within 28 days of their pay request. Obviously, your child could be born at any time during a 24-hour period, but if you were at work at the time, and your job permitted it, I think you would be hard pressed to find an employer who would refuse to let you leave so you could attend the birth. All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, National restrictions in England from 5 November, Check you can afford to take on employees, Make your workplace safe and accessible for employees, Check your responsibilities around workplace pensions, Get your business ready to employ staff: step by step, Check whether you need full time or part time staff, Check the different types of employment status, Check how much the National Minimum Wage is, Find out how much National Insurance you need to pay for your employees, Check how much sick pay your employees are eligible for, Check how much you need to pay towards your employee's pension, Check how much Maternity Leave you need to pay your employees, Check how much Paternity Leave you need to pay your employees, Make your workplace accessible for employees with disabilities or health conditions, Find out what you need to check when you employ someone, If you decide to run payroll yourself, choose payroll software, Understand your pension responsibilities as an employer, Find out about Employers' Liability insurance, Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance and support, Transparency and freedom of information releases, husband or partner of the mother (or adopter), intended parent (if they’re having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement), be employed by you up to the date the child is born (or placed with the adopter) (paternity pay only), be on your payroll and earn at least £120 a week (gross) in an 8 week ‘relevant period’ (paternity pay only), be taking time off to look after the child or their partner, be responsible for the child’s upbringing. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the baby is due. Explore the possibility of working from home. The information within this article is not a complete or final statement of the law. If you think a credit may be incorrect, please contact us at [email protected]. “If you take shared parental leave you are also entitled to take up to 37 weeks of shared parental pay between you, which is the same rate as statutory maternity pay (£151.20 per week or 90% of your average weekly earnings if lower). If there is no paperwork in place and no one who can help you, visit your trade union website or Gov.uk, which will give you helpful tips on what you should expect. “It is also possible to request discontinuous periods: for example, you both take one month off together then each return to work for alternate months. Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. You can change your cookie settings at any time. You must keep a copy. Register for free or login to save articles to My Favourites to refer to at a later date. You can refuse Statutory Paternity Pay if the employee does not qualify. You’ve accepted all cookies. Finally, if you are leaving your partner at home then make sure you have numbers such as your health visitor and GP to hand if you don’t have family or friends close by. Some employers offer enhanced company pay, but they don’t have to.” – Tabitha, How close to the birth of your baby does your leave have to be?“Paternity leave can be taken between the day your child is born and up to the 56th day. “There is a limit to this right, though. All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, National restrictions in England from 5 November, Check you can afford to take on employees, Make your workplace safe and accessible for employees, Check your responsibilities around workplace pensions, Get your business ready to employ staff: step by step, Check whether you need full time or part time staff, Check the different types of employment status, Check how much the National Minimum Wage is, Find out how much National Insurance you need to pay for your employees, Check how much sick pay your employees are eligible for, Check how much you need to pay towards your employee's pension, Check how much Maternity Leave you need to pay your employees, Check how much Paternity Leave you need to pay your employees, Make your workplace accessible for employees with disabilities or health conditions, Find out what you need to check when you employ someone, If you decide to run payroll yourself, choose payroll software, Understand your pension responsibilities as an employer, Find out about Employers' Liability insurance, Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance and support, Transparency and freedom of information releases. The publisher and contributors will not be held liable for any inaccuracies and their consequences, including any loss arising from reliance on this information. You must keep a copy. To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. You can change your cookie settings at any time. In reality pregnant women have a lot more than two appointments so their partners will need to choose which appointments are the most important for them to attend. It’s staggering to think paternity leave is a relatively new entitlement and as with all these things it’s essential you know your rights. For very premature births where the child is born 15 weeks before the due date, you’ll need to calculate paternity pay using your payroll software (if it has this feature) or work it out manually. The measure allows for leave to be taken by eligible GPs at the time of birth or up to 26 weeks after the birth. Employees must be one of the following, the: If your employee usually earns an average of £120 or more a week, and they only earned less in some weeks because they were paid but not working (‘on furlough’) under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, they may still be eligible. Are men entitled to any time off to attend antenatal appointments? Before you join a new company, check your contract of employment and ask your HR department about paternity leave as different rules apply for each company – you may not be eligible for any time at all. DISCLAIMER: *This feature provides general advice about paternity leave. What happens if there are health complications for your partner or wife? It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Whilst post-natal anxiety and depression in women is become more recognised, there is sadly a growing trend of men and partners suffering from post-natal anxiety and depression too but it is often missed, misunderstood or ignored. The NCT (National Childbirth Trust) also has lots of online resources for new fathers, as does Dads Matter UK, and the NHS, which has recently developed a new online guide for new dads – The Dad Pad.” – Charlotte, Follow Paula Rhone-Adrien on Instagram and visit ParisSmith.co.uk. to pay a higher rate or in full for the two-week period. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve government services. You also need to make checks when you recruit and employ someone. If your employee has taken paid time off to attend adoption appointments they are not eligible for paternity pay and leave. You’ve accepted all cookies. You can refuse Statutory Paternity Pay if the employee does not qualify. Don’t worry we won’t send you spam or share your email address with anyone. If the child is born early, the employee is still eligible if they would have worked for you continuously for at least 26 weeks by the qualifying week. However, companies can refuse a request to take leave in this way (known as ‘discontinuous leave’) and so it will very much depend upon the needs of the business and whether they can accommodate it. Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. While women have the right to take ‘reasonable time off’ which can be construed quite broadly, for their partners the right is limited to no more than two occasions lasting no more than six and a half hours each (which the guidance suggests covers the time away from the workplace, i.e. including travel and waiting time as well as the actual time spent at the appointment). Employees cannot get Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave if they’ve taken Shared Parental Leave.