Child Care

Use this tab to record the current criteria for statutory childcare payments for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP), and Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP). The values must be the statutory values described by HMRC for the current payroll period. You can import these statutory values into the system after you run your year end process, in preparation for the new tax year.

A person is allowed so many weeks of a type of payment (Total Weeks). Of this total week allowance, a number of weeks are paid as a percentage of the employee’s average weekly earnings (Number (%) Rate paid by Upper Rate %) and the remaining weeks of the total allowance are paid at a flat rate for all employees (Statutory Weekly Value).

The current criteria for SMP includes a split of the total week allowance between two different types of payments, but SPP can be paid fully at a statutory weekly value due to the greatly reduced number of weeks paid. Other rules can also be applied to ensure an employee is not paid more than their average weekly earnings as a result of this system, so you will also be required to enter the other criteria even though they may not actually be used.

In each of the three types of childcare payment, the employee only qualifies when their average weekly earnings are greater than or equal to the stated value (Average Weekly Pay).

Example: Recording Statutory Values for SPP

For the tax year starting from the 6th April 2009, the criteria for SPP is as follows:

If the average gross earnings are £95.00 a week or more, SPP is paid for 1 or 2 consecutive weeks at £123.06 or 90% of your average weekly earnings if this is less than £123.06.

You can define this as follows:

Average Weekly Pay: 95.00

Total Weeks: 2

Number (%) Rate: 0

Upper Rate (%): 90.00

Statutory Weekly Value: 123.06

This determines that all (1 or 2) weeks are paid at the statutory weekly value, although the 90.00% may be implemented if this percentage of the employee’s average weekly earnings is less than the 123.06.

For further details about childcare payments, refer to the HMRC website:

SMP

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/smp-overview.htm

SPP

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/spp-overview.htm

SAP

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/sap-overview.htm

For information about the details you enter on the Sickness tab, click here.