SPP (Adopt) Details

Matching Date

The date on which the child is expected to be matched with the employee. Once you have entered this date, the application automatically calculates the following dates:

• The start of the matching week

• Latest date of continuous employment. This date must be at least 26 weeks before the Saturday in the matching week.

• The relevant period start and end dates

• The latest Paternity Pay Period start date.

These dates are displayed in the appropriate boxes in the right-hand side of the form. You cannot override these dates.

Expected Placement Date

The date on which the child is expected to be placed with the employee. This cannot be earlier than the matching date.

Declaration of Family Commitment Received

An option that indicates that you have received the declaration of family commitment. Without this option selected, the employee is not entitled to SPP. As an employer, you should keep a copy of this declaration for your own records.

Actual Placement Date

The date on which the child is placed with the employee. This cannot be earlier than the matching date.

Intended Leave Date

According to HMRC rules, the earliest an employee can leave for the paternity leave is the day before the Expected Placement Date or the Actual Placement Date. The application uses the Actual Placement Date to check this, unless it is empty, when it uses the Expected Placement Date.

Employees must also give at least 28 days notice of their intention to take paternity leave.

Weeks to be taken

The number of weeks paternity leave to be taken. This can be up to two weeks.

On Paternity Leave

An option that indicates whether the employee is on paternity leave. This option is activated by the entry of a date in the Intended Leave Date box. Once the employee goes on leave, select this option.

Actual Leave Date

The day before the employee went on paternity leave. You can only enter this once you have selected the On Paternity Leave option. The default is the date you entered in the Intended Leave Date box.

Warning: You must enter the day before the baby was born, even if they started paternity leave before that. For example, if the baby was born on Monday and they started paternity leave on the previous Friday, enter the date for the Sunday instead of Friday. This allows Opera to correctly calculate the start of the Paternity Pay Period.

Warning: You must enter the date of the employee's last working day, not the first day of the paternity leave.  

Weeks Worked in PPP

The number of weeks, if any, that the employee worked in your employment during the Paternity Pay Period (PPP) for the current pay period. When you make an entry here, the application automatically defers payment of SPP for any weeks worked. Should the employee work for you again later on in their PPP, increase this entry by the number of weeks worked in the subsequent pay period.

Trade Dispute Weeks

The number of weeks, if any, that the employee spent in trade dispute.

Returned After PPP

The date on which the employee returned to your employment after the Paternity Pay Period (PPP). If the employee returns to work early, enter the return date here to automatically cease the employee's remaining SPP payments.

Special Circumstances

An option that determines any special circumstances that might affect the entitlement to or calculation of SPP for the employee. The options available are:

• None

• Employee Deceased (only allowed if the employee is already on paternity leave)

• Taken into legal custody (only allowed if the employee is already on paternity leave)

• Outside European Economic Area (only allowed if the employee is not on paternity leave yet).

For all circumstances other than 'None' and 'Outside European Economic Area', you also enter a comment and date in the boxes alongside.

These fields are for information so cannot be changed

Matching Week

The Sunday of the week that the child was matched with the employee.

PPP Start

The paternity pay period start date which is the day after the Actual Leave Date.

PPP End

The paternity pay period end date calculated using the Weeks for Paternity Pay Period box on the active PAYE/NI/Stat. Payments table.

Latest Date Contin. Employ

The latest date from which the employee must have been in continuous employment with the employer. This is at least 26 weeks before the Saturday in the Matching Week.

Relevant Period Start

The relevant pay period start date associated with the paternity pay period.

Relevant Period End

The relevant pay period end date associated with the paternity pay period.

Latest PPP Start

The latest start date for the Paternity Pay Period (PPP). This date is calculated using the Actual Placement Date and the number of days in the Time Limit Days box (on the active PAYE/NI/Stat. Payments table). If the Actual Placement Date is not known, the Expected Placement Date is used.

Calculated Average Weekly Earnings

The average gross weekly earnings of the employee in the relevant period. This is calculated automatically and cannot be amended here, but you can override it using the Override Average Weekly Earnings box.

Override Average Weekly Earnings

You can override the automatically calculated average weekly earnings for the employee by entering your own figure here. The application will prompt you to enter an override if there is insufficient payment history for the employee to determine a calculated average weekly earnings figure.

Entitlement

If you use the Estimate Entitlement command on the Action menu, the application estimates the SPP payments at the earnings related rate or the standard rate. In each case, the columns in the grid show the number of weeks at the corresponding rate, the rate itself and the value of SPP at that rate. A line of totals is shown for both rates.

SPP Payment Status

This part of the form reflects the results of actual SPP payments. The number of weeks at the earnings related and standard rates, plus the weeks remaining are shown for this period (TP), for the year to date (TD) and for the year to date this period (TDTP). The amounts actually paid for the corresponding periods are also shown.

Relevant Period Details

Display a form showing all eight sets of relevant period values based on the entries in the SPP (Adopt) Details form.

Estimate Entitlement

View the anticipated SPP entitlement for the employee prior to their going on paternity leave.

 An intended leave date must have been entered.

Calculate

Calculate and display the SPP for the employee that is due to be paid this period. This is only available if the On Paternity Leave option is selected on the General tab of the SPP (Adopt) Details form.