Duration, interpreted
Full statutory year
50 weeks total
UK statutory leave · 2026-27
SPL/ShPP 2026-27 37 paid weeks LONG FLAT FLEX EMP-RECOVER
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Pay (ShPP)
Both parents must meet the work and earnings continuity tests; the birth parent must curtail SMP/MA. Up to 50 weeks of leave + 37 weeks of pay can be split.
- Max leave
- 50 wks
- paid + unpaid
- Paid weeks
- 37 wks
- at flat rate
- 2026-27 flat rate
- £194.32
- per week
- Earnings threshold
- £129/wk
- to qualify
Paid weeks, interpreted
Extended paid leave
37 weeks paid
2026-27 rate, interpreted
Standard statutory rate
£194.32/week
Earnings threshold, interpreted
Standard LEL threshold
£129/wk to qualify
Download the UK statutory parental-pay extract cited on this page: uk-statutory-parental-pay.csv (CC BY 4.0).
What this scheme actually pays
SPL/ShPP pays 37 weeks at the flat £194.32/week 2026-27 rate. Parents who want to share caregiving, or where the higher earner is the birth parent and the lower earner can pause work.
Each parent's own employer (recoverable from HMRC). Not for: Parents with low SPL uptake employers or where one partner does not qualify.
- £7,190
- Statutory pay from the flat phase37 wks × £194.32
- £194.32
- Weekly flat rate, 2026-27
- 26 wks
- Qualifying employment needed
HMRC leave posture brief
SPL/ShPP statutory profile in this snapshot
Entity-varying stamps from the live leave_types registry (paid weeks, KIT allowance, payer route, flat rate) - not a clone nationwide scaffold.
- 37 wks statutory paid weeks on this scheme #4 of 5 by length
- 37 weeks at flat rate only
- 20 days Keeping-in-Touch allowance #1 of 5 by KIT days
- SPL/ShPP who routes statutory cash
- £194.32 weekly flat rate (2026-27)
- MA nearest paid-weeks peer (Δ 2 wks)
- 2026-05-20 HMRC/GOV.UK registry vintage
Paid-weeks neighbourhood
Statutory paid weeks among the nearest ABS(paid_weeks) peers (snapshot 2026-08-10).
How the 50 weeks break down
SPL/ShPP entitlement across the full leave period, week by week.
- Flat £194.32/wk · 37weeks
- Unpaid · 13weeks
Paid vs unpaid weeks on SPL/ShPP
Additive split of the full 50-week entitlement from the live leave_types row: paid weeks and unpaid weeks sum exactly to max leave (coarser than the 90%/flat/unpaid phase bar above).
Length vs flexibility in this corpus
Both gauges read the same leave_types row. Paid weeks and KIT days are separate columns; SPL/ShPP can lead on one and trail on the other.
Paid weeks vs longest scheme
Corpus paid-weeks rank #4 of 5
KIT days vs scheme ceiling
Corpus KIT-days rank #1 of 5
Where SPL/ShPP sits among all 6 schemes
Statutory paid-weeks inventory across every leave scheme in the corpus. SPL/ShPP is marked; length is not a quality ranking.
SPL/ShPP vs all schemes by paid weeks
Where this scheme's statutory paid weeks sit among every tracked leave type
37 4th of 6 higher than 2 of 6 schemes
Schemes, banded by statutory paid weeks
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more schemes. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source UK statutory parental-leave entitlements · 2026-08-10
Year on year
Flat-rate progression
SPL/ShPP weekly flat rate
HMRC statutory flat-rate upratings from the live statutory_rates table.
Leave Value & Flexibility Score
How generous and flexible SPL/ShPP is, from 3 of 4 tracked dimensions (the rest do not apply to this scheme, so their weight redistributed to the ones that do).
97 A
- Paid weeks 37 weeks 95/100 · A
- Total leave available 50 weeks 96/100 · A
- Keeping-in-Touch flexibility 20 days 100/100 · A
- Initial pay-replacement rate Flat rate only N/A · weight redistributed
Benchmarked against the full tracked leave-scheme corpus (p10-p90 range per dimension, computed live); a higher score means more paid weeks, more total leave, more Keeping-in-Touch flexibility, and (when the scheme has one) a higher initial pay-replacement rate. See how we place leave schemes.
About this SPL/ShPP extract
This page reads the live leave_types row for Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Pay (ShPP) (LONG · FLAT · FLEX · EMP-RECOVER) from HMRC and GOV.UK statutory-payment rules for 2026-27. Flat rates uplift each April; employer-enhanced contractual pay is out of scope.
Full attribution and refresh cadence sit on the methodology page. HMRC and Acas remain the canonical channels for individual eligibility disputes.
Who qualifies
Both parents must meet the work and earnings continuity tests; the birth parent must curtail SMP/MA. Up to 50 weeks of leave + 37 weeks of pay can be split.
Qualifying period
26 weeks continuous employment + earnings continuity test
Who pays (EMP-RECOVER)
Each parent's own employer (recoverable from HMRC).
Notice required
At least 8 weeks before each leave block
Keeping In Touch (KIT) days · FLEX
SPL/ShPP allows up to 20 optional paid KIT days (FLEX stamp in this corpus) without ending leave. Agreed-rate KIT pay does not reduce the LONG statutory paid-weeks entitlement.
Pension treatment
Same as SMP for the period taken.
Rate table
| Tax year | Weekly rate | Threshold (LEL) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | £194.32 | £129.00 | Shared Parental Pay flat rate. |
| 2025-26 | £187.18 | £125.00 | Shared Parental Pay flat rate (April 2025). |
Rates uprated annually each April. Source: HMRC rates and allowances publication.
Best-for / not-for
Best for: Parents who want to share caregiving, or where the higher earner is the birth parent and the lower earner can pause work.
Not for: Parents with low SPL uptake employers or where one partner does not qualify.
Governing law and source
Children and Families Act 2014; Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014
Source: https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay · Rates as of 2026-05-20 per HMRC rate-and-allowance publication
Next step for your own household
The stamps above cover the scheme in general; your own take-home depends on your actual pay and start date. Run those figures on the pay calculator or line it up against every other scheme on the comparison board , or work through the Shared Parental Leave decision engine.
Read with SPL/ShPP
Nearest ABS(paid_weeks) and ABS(kit_days) peers for SPL/ShPP (LONG · FLAT · FLEX · EMP-RECOVER), replacing the old fixed Related schemes strip.
LONG FLAT FLEX EMP-RECOVER
MA · MAX
MA 39 paid weeks (more by 2 than SPL/ShPP); KIT FLOOR · DWP-DIRECT vs this page FLEX · EMP-RECOVER.
SAP · MAX
SAP 39 paid weeks (more by 2 than SPL/ShPP); KIT FLOOR · EMP-RECOVER vs this page FLEX · EMP-RECOVER.
SMP · MAX
SMP 39 paid weeks (more by 2 than SPL/ShPP); KIT FLOOR · EMP-RECOVER vs this page FLEX · EMP-RECOVER.
Compare SPL/ShPP side-by-side
Paid-weeks LONG · phase FLAT · KIT FLEX against every other live scheme.
SPL/ShPP cash-flow calculator
Model FLAT weeks at the live 2026-27 flat rate for this EMP-RECOVER route.
Guide: Shared Parental Leave
Editorial walkthrough adjacent to SPL/ShPP's LONG · EMP-RECOVER registry row.
Stored on this device only. No account, no email.
Open my watchlist
What this registry row gives you
SPL/ShPP is recorded at 37 paid weeks and £194.32/week flat for 2026-27 (HMRC/GOV.UK).
- Compare SPL/ShPP paid-weeks and KIT stamps against every other live scheme. Open compare
- Model the FLAT cash-flow at the live 2026-27 flat rate for this EMP-RECOVER route. Open calculator
- How the flat rate, qualifying tests, and KIT days are derived from the primary tables. Methodology
Informational registry only, not payroll, tax, or medical advice. Confirm figures against the cited HMRC/GOV.UK source before any decision.
According to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and GOV.UK statutory-payment guidance, UK parental leave and pay figures are published in the Rates and Allowances: Statutory Payments tables and related employment-rights pages. Every figure on PlainMaternity is rebuilt from those primary publications; no number is typed in by an editor. Leave-type figures are computed directly from gov.uk statutory pay and leave data, no figure is typed in by an editor. We don't rate employers or recommend leave choices, these pages are a registry of the published rules. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a correction. Data current as of 2026-27.