Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP)

Employed adults with parental responsibility who suffer the loss of a child under the age of 18
Parents who suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy

TIP: In this instance, the entitlement for female employees is to up to 52 weeks of maternity leave and/or pay. As is a mother who loses a child after it is born
Parents and primary carers must have a continuous period of employment. This should be at least 26 weeks before the child’s death to be eligible

What are employees entitled to?

Parents and primary carers who have:

Been employed for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks before the child's death
Received pay above the lower-earning limit (£123 per week for 2023-24) for the previous eight weeks

Entitled to at least two weeks’ statutory paid leave. For 2023-24 this is a rate of £172.48 per week, or 90% of average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).

Workers who have:

Not been employed for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks

Entitled to two weeks of unpaid leave.

Taking leave

The employee can take two weeks leave either in one block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each.
The employee should take leave within 56 weeks of the date of the child’s death. This is so the employee can take time off for difficult events. For example, birthdays or anniversaries
Notice requirements for taking the leave will be flexible, to allow for short notice
If an employee loses more than one child, they may take a separate period of leave for each child if they wish

As the employer, what do I need to do?

Before recording SPBP, check your employee meets the following criteria:

Criteria	Extra information
They have been continuously employed for at least 26 weeks at the relevant week.	The relevant week is the week (ending with a Saturday) before the week in which the child dies.
They have average weekly earnings of at least the lower earning limit (in force at the relevant week). The period for calculating the average wage stays the same. This is irrespective of when the employee chooses to take the entitlement.	The ‘relevant period’ is 8 weeks ending with the relevant week.
They have given you the correct notice	Your employee must give notice in writing within 28 days of the first day of the SPBP period. Where not practicable due to circumstances, then as soon as is practicable.
They have completed an employee declaration	Your employee must provide evidence of their entitlement in writing. This must include a declaration that they meet the conditions for SPBP. It should include details of: The name of the person claiming SPBP The date of the child’s death (or date of birth for a stillborn child) The period or periods in which to receive SPBP

How do I record SPBP in Sage Business Cloud Payroll?

Bereavement pay is recorded as an absence, during a pay run.

TIP: If the employee is already on a statutory leave, you can't also process bereavement pay.

From the Absences stage of your pay run, select the required employee.
From the Add Absence drop-down menu, select Bereavement.
Complete the details for the bereavement leave as required.
Complete the rest of the pay run as normal.

SPBP calculates using the statutory payment rate in force for the year. From 6 April 2023, this is £172.48 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings if less.

Payroll reports this figure in your next Full Payment Submission. It includes the recoverable amounts on your Employer Payment Summary.

CAUTION: You must keep records for 3 years after the end of the tax year in which you make the SPBP payments.

TIP: Payroll calculates SBP in whole weeks only, from the leave start date. For example, Leave starts on Wednesday. The week would be from Wednesday to the following Tuesday.

How do I recover SPBP?

Recovering SPBP is the same as other Parental Payments. When you record an absence in your pay run, the system includes the figures in your EPS. The EPS submission to HMRC lowers your current year's liabilities to HMRC.

TIP: If you qualify as a small employer, you can reclaim 100% of SPBP + 3% compensation. If you are a larger employer, you can reclaim 92%.

Read more about recovering statutory payments from the HMRC website.

Get financial help with statutory pay (opens in new tab)

What if I've just moved to Sage Business Cloud Payroll?

If you've been using the software for less than 8 weeks

When you enter the dates for the bereavement pay, you'll see the following message:

At this point, you need to manually calculate the employee's average weekly earnings for the previous 8 weeks.

TIP: For the calculation, include earnings recorded in payroll in the 8 weeks. Add these to any earnings within the previous 8 weeks recorded in your old system.

Once you have calculated the figure, confirm it's above the lower earnings limit for the tax year. If it is, enter the figure and select Save.

If the average weekly earnings figure is below the lower earnings limit for the tax year, your employee does not qualify for SPBP. Select the Issue certificate option.

If you've been using the software for less than 26 weeks

Your employee must have been continuously employed for 26 weeks. You must check they meet this criteria before recording the SPBP.

Override AWE

The system may not have a history of the pay periods used to calculate the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE). If you have moved to a new payroll system recently, for example.

In this case you have to calculate the AWE and override the system calculated figure.

Employees receive the following payments based on 100% of their normal average earnings:

Maternity Pay
Paternity Pay
Shared Parental Pay
Parental Bereavement Pay
Adoption Pay

To adjust the figure

Create and save the statutory payment as normal.
From the absence page, select the absence you want to edit.
Select the Override AWE check box.
Enter the correct AWE figure and Save.

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﻿Who's entitled to SPBP?