Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay: How the Rules Work Now
Paternity leave has changed twice in recent years, and most of the guidance floating around describes the old version. The two big shifts: since 2024 the two weeks can be split up and taken any time in the baby's first year, and since 6 April 2026 the right to the leave itself no longer depends on how long you have been in the job.
Here is the current position, and the distinction that catches people out, which is that the leave and the pay have different conditions. This is general information rather than advice on your own circumstances.
What You Get
Statutory paternity leave is one or two weeks. Not more, whatever your circumstances, and a week means your normal working week, so someone working three days a week takes three days as one week of leave.
Statutory Paternity Pay for 2026/27 is £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. That is the same standard rate as SMP after the first six weeks, and there is no enhanced opening period for paternity.
Two weeks at £194.32 is £388.64 gross, which is the whole of the statutory entitlement. It is not much, and for most households the real question is what your employer offers on top.
Taking it in two separate blocks
If you take the full two weeks, they no longer have to be consecutive. You can take them as two separate blocks of one week, at different times.
That is genuinely useful. A common pattern is one week at the birth and one week when a partner's maternity leave ends and childcare has to start. Another is one week at the birth and one when family who came to help go home.
The leave also has to finish within 52 weeks of the birth, rather than the old rule requiring it within the first eight weeks. So the second week can sit anywhere in that first year.
Plan the second week rather than losing it. Because the deadline is now a year rather than two months, plenty of people intend to take the second week and never get round to it. It does not carry over past 52 weeks, and it does not convert into anything else.
Who can take it
You can take paternity leave if you are the biological father, the mother's spouse, civil partner or partner, the child's adopter, or the intended parent in a surrogacy arrangement.
You also need to have or expect to have responsibility for the child's upbringing, and to be taking the leave to care for the child or support the mother. The definition is about the caring relationship rather than biology or gender, so a same-sex partner qualifies on exactly the same terms.
The leave and the pay have different conditions
This is the part worth reading carefully, because the recent change applies to one and not the other.
The leave is now a day one right. Since 6 April 2026 you no longer need a qualifying period of service to take statutory paternity leave. Start a job in March and have a baby in May and the leave is available to you.
The pay still has conditions. To get Statutory Paternity Pay you need at least 26 weeks of continuous employment with that employer by the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before the baby is due, and average weekly earnings of at least the Lower Earnings Limit, £129 for 2026/27.
| Paternity leave | Statutory Paternity Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Length of service needed | None, from 6 April 2026 | 26 weeks by the qualifying week |
| Minimum earnings | None | £129 a week average |
| Amount | Unpaid unless the pay conditions are met | £194.32 or 90% of earnings, whichever is lower |
| Maximum | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
So a new starter can take the leave but may take it unpaid. That is still worth having, but it needs planning for rather than discovering.
Notice
You must give 28 days' notice before the leave is due to start. If you are taking two separate weeks, each block needs its own 28 days.
That is a considerable improvement on the old requirement of notice by the 15th week before the due date, and it means you can decide the timing much later. It also means you cannot simply not turn up because the baby has arrived, so agree the intended dates with your employer in advance even though you can vary them.
You will normally need to give your employer written notice of the birth date, the dates you want, and confirmation that you meet the conditions. Most employers have their own form.
Antenatal Appointments
Separately from paternity leave, partners have the right to take unpaid time off to attend up to two antenatal appointments, with a limit on the hours for each one.
It is a small right and it is underused, largely because nobody mentions it. It applies to the pregnant employee's partner, the baby's father, and intended parents in surrogacy.
Bereaved partner's paternity leave
From 6 April 2026 there is a new entitlement for a situation nobody wants to plan for. If the mother or primary adopter dies, the surviving partner can take up to 52 weeks of bereaved partner's paternity leave.
It exists because the previous position left a bereaved father with two weeks of paternity leave and no route to the mother's remaining maternity leave. If you are ever in that situation, this is worth knowing exists, and it is worth an employer knowing too, because it is new enough that many will not have it in their policies.
Enhanced employer schemes
Statutory paternity pay is a floor. A good number of employers pay full salary for the two weeks, and some offer considerably more leave, occasionally matching maternity terms.
Check the staff handbook rather than asking a colleague, because these schemes vary enormously between employers and change often. If there is an enhanced scheme, check two things: whether it has its own service requirement, and whether there is any repayment clause if you leave within a period afterwards.
Where Shared Parental Leave fits
Two weeks is short, and Shared Parental Leave is the route to more. It lets the mother end her maternity leave early and share the balance, up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay, between both parents.
Taking paternity leave does not stop you taking Shared Parental Leave afterwards. What does not work in the other direction is taking Shared Parental Leave first and then paternity leave, so the order matters. Our articles on how Shared Parental Leave works and whether it is worth it cover the mechanics and the money.
Practical Points
Tax and National Insurance come off Statutory Paternity Pay in the normal way, like any other pay.
Your employment rights continue during the leave. Holiday accrues, your contractual benefits continue, and you are entitled to return to the same job.
You cannot get SPP from two employers for the same period in the way you sometimes can with SSP, so if you have two jobs, check the position with both rather than assuming.
If your employer refuses the pay, ask for the reasons in writing. If you think the refusal is wrong, HMRC's Statutory Payment Disputes Team can make a decision on entitlement, and it costs nothing to ask them.
If the baby comes early or late
An early birth is the situation the old eight-week rule handled badly. Now that the window runs to 52 weeks after the birth, an early arrival simply moves the start of that window rather than compressing your options.
If your baby is born early and needs neonatal care, there is a separate entitlement on top of paternity leave that many parents do not know about, covered in our article on neonatal care leave and pay. It is worth reading before you use up your two weeks sitting in a hospital.