| Adopter | This is the person or persons who are going to adopt the child. They can be adopting a child on their own, or they can adopt a child with their partner. |
| Date of placement | The date the child begins living with the person permanently, with the intention of legal adoption. This includes if the have stayed with them before this date. |
| Expected date of placement | The placement date expected for the child. The child's placement date for adoption. This is the actual date of placement. |
| Expected week of confinement (EWC) | This is the calendar week, which begins on a Sunday, in which the baby is due. This is the expected week of childbirth. |
| LEL | Lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions. For 2026/2027 this is £129.00 per week. |
| Matching date | The date the adoption agency informed your employee, they matched with a child. |
| Matching week | The week the adopter finds out that they’ve been matched with a child. For paternity pay (adoption) this is the week that’s used to work out the set period. It's also the 26-week continuous employment qualifying condition for UK adoptions. |
| SPP1 | SPP1 is the form an employer must give to an employee on paternity leave when not entitled to receive SPP. You can then present this to HMRC to claim the SPP directly from them. |
| Paternity pay period (PPP) | This is the two-week period during which the employee can take paternity leave and receive paternity pay.
The PPP can’t start until the baby is born or the child has been placed. The employee can choose to take one or two whole weeks leave but not two separate weeks.
The weeks can start on any day, for example, Thursday to Wednesday. The leave must end by the 56th day after the date of birth. If born early, the employee can choose to take their leave anytime between the actual date of birth and the end of an eight-week period. This starts from the Sunday of the week the baby was originally due. |
| Qualifying week (QW) | This is the 15th week before the expected week of confinement (EWC) date. |
| SC3 | SC3 is the form the employee needs to complete to request paternity pay and leave. The employee can discuss their leave plans with you by the 15th week before the week the baby is due.
The employee can change their mind about the leave dates but needs to give you 28 days notice. If required, they can complete another SC3 form. |
| SC4 | SC4 is the form the employee needs to complete to request adoptive paternity pay and leave. The employee can discuss their leave plans with you and tell you what time off they want. This needs to be within seven days of the date the adoption agency informs them they’ve been matched with the child.
The employee can change their mind about the leave dates but needs to give you 28 days notice. If required, they can complete another SC4 form. |
| SC5 | SC5 is the form the employee uses to complete to request adoptive paternity pay and leave when adopting from abroad. |
| Small employers’ relief (SER) | The amount of SMP that you can recover from HMRC depends on whether you’re classed as a small or standard employer. If you’re a small employer, you can claim back 100% of the SMP that you pay to the employee. You can also claim a further 3% of that amount in NI compensation. |
| Set period or relevant period | This is the eight-week period leading up to the qualifying week or matching week. It's used to calculate the employee’s average weekly gross pay. |