This article helps you understand the requirements for an employee to qualify for SAP.

For more information about SAP in general, read Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP).

You can also access the employers guide on the Gov.UK website. Read Statutory Adoption Pay and Leave: employer guide.

To qualify

Documentary evidence

Your employee must provide documentary evidence to prove that they're adopting a child. This has to be through an adoption agency at least 28 days before the start of payment. It can be a matching certificate or a letter and must show:

• The name and address of the employee and the adoption agency.
• The date the child was or expected to be placed with the employee.
• The date the employee was told by the adoption agency that they had matched with a child.

Length of employment

The employee must be continuously employed by you for the 26 weeks up to and continuing into the matching week. The matching week is the week in which the employee is told by the adoption agency that they have matched with a child.

The employee's earnings

The employee's average weekly earnings in the eight weeks before the matching week must be at or above the current national insurance (NI) Lower Earnings Limit (LEL).

SAP start date

Your employee has the right to choose when they want to start their adoption pay and leave. The date:

• Can't be more than 14 days before the expected placement date
• Must start no later than the date the child is placed, or the day after that if they were at work that day

If your employee isn’t entitled to SAP for any reason, you must give them Form SAP1 Non-payment of Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP).

Entitlement 

The employee should give you at least 28 days notice of when they want SAP to start.

• An adopter is entitled to 52 weeks statutory adoption leave.
• For employees who qualify, SAP is payable for 39 weeks.
• This is made up from:
  - Six weeks at the higher rate, which is 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings.
  - 33 weeks at the standard rate. Which is the lesser amount of 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings or £184.03 (2024/25) or £187.18 (2025/26) per week.
• If the employee meets all qualifying conditions, as an employer, you're obliged to pay the statutory rate of SAP. Whether you pay any further wages on top of the statutory requirement depends on the employee's contract of employment. You're under no statutory obligation to pay anything further.

 NOTE: Payroll calculates SAP in whole weeks only, from the adoption start date. For example, the adoption starts on Wednesday. The week is Wednesday to the following Tuesday