Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay calculator

The gap between the leave and the money

Most paternity calculators output a number of pounds. That is the least useful part, because the statutory rate is a flat figure that anyone can look up. The genuinely important output is a date, and the genuinely important finding is that the two halves of this scheme have different entry requirements.

Paternity leave is available from your first day of employment. Paternity pay requires 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer by the end of the qualifying week — the fifteenth week before the baby is due. Start a job four months before the birth and you are entitled to the time off and not to the money.

That is the single most common unpleasant surprise in this area, and it is invisible in any tool that only prints a total.

What the qualifying week actually is

Everything counts back from the expected week of childbirth: the Sunday-to-Saturday week your due date falls in. Count back fifteen weeks and you have the qualifying week.

Two deadlines land there. Your employer must be told the due date by the end of it — GOV.UK puts it as at least 15 weeks before the baby is due. And your 26 weeks of service are measured to the same point.

Because it is all measured from the due date and not the birth, a baby arriving three weeks early or two weeks late does not move any of it.

What you actually have to tell them, and when

Less than people fear. GOV.UK says you do not have to give a precise date for the leave: you can give a general time such as the day of the birth, or one week after. If you then want to change the start date, you need to give 28 days' notice.

So the fifteen-week deadline is about telling your employer the due date and that you intend to take paternity leave. It is not about committing to a calendar entry for a baby who has not yet decided when to arrive.

Two weeks, and what a week means

The maximum is two weeks, and it is two weeks however many babies arrive. Twins do not double it.

Since 2024 the two weeks can be taken separately in one-week blocks rather than having to run together, and the window for taking them is 52 weeks from the birth rather than the old eight. That is a genuinely useful change: one week at the birth and one week when a partner returns to work, or when family support runs out, is now a legitimate plan.

A week of leave means the number of days you normally work in a week. If you work Mondays and Tuesdays, a week is two days.

The money, and what it is not

The statutory rate is a flat weekly figure, or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings if that is lower. For most people the flat rate applies, and it is a long way below normal pay. Tax and National Insurance still come off it.

Before assuming that is what you will get, ask your employer. Many organisations run enhanced paternity schemes — two weeks at full pay is common, and some offer considerably more. They cannot offer less than the statutory amount, so the statutory figure is a floor. This is one of the few benefits questions where the answer is genuinely more likely to be good than bad, and where people routinely fail to ask.

If you are self-employed

There is no equivalent. Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay are for employees, and the UK has no self-employed paternity benefit. You can of course take time off; it is unpaid unless you have arranged cover yourself. Worth building into the budget rather than discovering in week one.

Antenatal appointments and the birth itself

Paternity leave cannot start before the birth, which surprises people planning to be around for the last fortnight. If the baby arrives at 38 weeks and you wanted a week beforehand, that week has to come from annual leave or unpaid time.

It is also worth deciding in advance how the first day is handled. Many employers treat the day of the birth flexibly, but the entitlement is written in weeks and it is easier to agree the mechanics before you are ringing from a labour ward. Ask two questions early: does the leave start on the day of the birth or the next working day, and who do I call.

The other schemes people confuse this with

Shared Parental Leave is a different and much larger entitlement: up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay, divided between two parents, taken in blocks. It requires the mother to curtail her maternity leave and it has its own eligibility rules and notice periods. If two weeks is not enough, this is usually the thing to look at next.

Unpaid Parental Leave is different again: 18 weeks per child up to their eighteenth birthday, normally in blocks of a week, capped at four weeks per child per year, after one year of service. It is unpaid, and it is regularly mistaken for paternity leave in conversations with employers.

Separately from all of these, you can take time off to accompany your partner or a surrogate to two antenatal appointments — or two adoption appointments once you have been matched.

Before you rely on the number

Rates change, usually each April, so check the current figure on GOV.UK before making a decision that turns on the money. Your employer and HMRC decide entitlement, not a calculator. This tool is for planning the dates and seeing where the tests bite.