If the employee meets all qualifying conditions, you’re obliged to pay the statutory rate of SPBP. You can pay any further wages on top of the statutory payment. This depends upon the employee’s contract of employment. You’re under no statutory obligation to pay anything further.

You can read the HMRC article Statutory Paternity Bereavement Pay and Leave: employer guide at gov.uk.

Entitlement

As long as employees meet the qualifying terms, they’re entitled to:

• To at least two weeks’ statutory paid leave
• For 2025-26 this is a rate of £187.18 per week
• For 2026-27 this is a rate of £194.32 per week, or 80% of average weekly earnings (whichever is lower)

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 has to 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 can take a separate period of leave for each child if they wish

Can't calculate the AWE

Sometimes, there's no history to calculate the AWE. This can happen if you’ve moved to Sage Payroll from another software provider.

You’ll have to calculate the AWE yourself. It is your responsibility to ensure this is correct.

For more information, read Recording Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay. 

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay - qualifying rules

Recording Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay

Recovering Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay