Duration, interpreted
Minimum statutory leave
2 weeks total
UK statutory leave · 2026-27
SPP 2026-27 2 paid weeks BRIEF FLAT NONE EMP-RECOVER
Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)
Employee for 26 continuous weeks ending the 15th week before EWC; biological father, mother's partner, or adopting parent.
- Max leave
- 2 wks
- paid + unpaid
- Paid weeks
- 2 wks
- at flat rate
- 2026-27 flat rate
- £194.32
- per week
- Earnings threshold
- £129/wk
- to qualify
Paid weeks, interpreted
Minimum paid leave
2 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
SPP pays 2 weeks at the flat £194.32/week 2026-27 rate. Partners taking 1-2 weeks at birth (2026 rules allow the two weeks to be split).
Employer (recoverable from HMRC). Not for: Longer partner leave — consider Shared Parental Leave.
- £389
- Statutory pay from the flat phase2 wks × £194.32
- £194.32
- Weekly flat rate, 2026-27
- 26 wks
- Qualifying employment needed
HMRC leave posture brief
SPP 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.
- 2 wks statutory paid weeks on this scheme #5 of 5 by length
- 2 weeks at flat rate only
- 0 days Keeping-in-Touch allowance #5 of 5 by KIT days
- SPP who routes statutory cash
- £194.32 weekly flat rate (2026-27)
- SPL/ShPP nearest paid-weeks peer (Δ 35 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 2 weeks break down
SPP entitlement across the full leave period, week by week.
- Flat £194.32/wk · 2weeks
Length vs flexibility in this corpus
Both gauges read the same leave_types row. Paid weeks and KIT days are separate columns; SPP can lead on one and trail on the other.
Paid weeks vs longest scheme
Corpus paid-weeks rank #5 of 5
KIT days vs scheme ceiling
Corpus KIT-days rank #5 of 5
Where SPP sits among all 6 schemes
Statutory paid-weeks inventory across every leave scheme in the corpus. SPP is marked; length is not a quality ranking.
SPP vs all schemes by paid weeks
Where this scheme's statutory paid weeks sit among every tracked leave type
2 5th of 6 higher than 1 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
SPP weekly flat rate
HMRC statutory flat-rate upratings from the live statutory_rates table.
Leave Value & Flexibility Score
How generous and flexible SPP is, from 3 of 4 tracked dimensions (the rest do not apply to this scheme, so their weight redistributed to the ones that do).
2 F
- Paid weeks 2 weeks 3/100 · F
- Total leave available 2 weeks 2/100 · F
- Keeping-in-Touch flexibility 0 days 0/100 · F
- 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 SPP extract
This page reads the live leave_types row for Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) (BRIEF · FLAT · NONE · 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
Employee for 26 continuous weeks ending the 15th week before EWC; biological father, mother's partner, or adopting parent.
Qualifying period
26 weeks continuous employment to qualifying week
Who pays (EMP-RECOVER)
Employer (recoverable from HMRC).
Notice required
15 weeks before EWC (or 7 days for matching date in adoption)
Keeping In Touch (KIT) days · NONE
SPP carries no statutory KIT-day allowance in the live registry (NONE stamp). Length still stamps BRIEF on paid weeks alone.
Pension treatment
Employer contributions continue at full-salary level during paid leave; employee contribution from SPP only.
Rate table
| Tax year | Weekly rate | Threshold (LEL) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | £194.32 | £129.00 | Paternity flat rate. |
| 2025-26 | £187.18 | £125.00 | Standard rate (April 2025 uprating). |
| 2024-25 | £184.03 | £123.00 | Standard rate. |
Rates uprated annually each April. Source: HMRC rates and allowances publication.
Best-for / not-for
Best for: Partners taking 1-2 weeks at birth (2026 rules allow the two weeks to be split).
Not for: Longer partner leave — consider Shared Parental Leave.
Governing law and source
Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002; updated by Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024
Source: https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave · 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 .
Read with SPP
Nearest ABS(paid_weeks) and ABS(kit_days) peers for SPP (BRIEF · FLAT · NONE · EMP-RECOVER), replacing the old fixed Related schemes strip.
BRIEF FLAT NONE EMP-RECOVER
SPL/ShPP · LONG
SPL/ShPP 37 paid weeks (more by 35 than SPP); KIT FLEX · EMP-RECOVER vs this page NONE · EMP-RECOVER.
MA · MAX
MA 39 paid weeks (more by 37 than SPP); KIT FLOOR · DWP-DIRECT vs this page NONE · EMP-RECOVER.
SAP · MAX
SAP 39 paid weeks (more by 37 than SPP); KIT FLOOR · EMP-RECOVER vs this page NONE · EMP-RECOVER.
Compare SPP side-by-side
Paid-weeks BRIEF · phase FLAT · KIT NONE against every other live scheme.
SPP cash-flow calculator
Model FLAT weeks at the live 2026-27 flat rate for this EMP-RECOVER route.
Guide: How SMP works
Editorial walkthrough adjacent to SPP's BRIEF · EMP-RECOVER registry row.
Stored on this device only. No account, no email.
Open my watchlist
What this registry row gives you
SPP is recorded at 2 paid weeks and £194.32/week flat for 2026-27 (HMRC/GOV.UK).
- Compare SPP 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.