SPP1 ? what has changed?
20 November 2015
You will recall that earlier this month we notified you that the Statutory Paternity Pay - SPP1 form had been updated.
We know that trying to keep track of the myriad of changes occurring across payroll practices for employment related income tax and NICs continues to challenge one and all, and so, knowing that you like a little extra detail, we took the opportunity to ask HMRC to expand a little on the note on GOV.UK ‘This form replaces form OSPP1 from 5 April 2015’ that came alongside the revised version of SPP1 and share with us a little more about their review processes.
"Annual Review
Statutory Payment (SP) forms on Gov.uk do not normally require year on year updates and we do not expect them to be impacted by the Government’s Autumn Statement in November/December. However, every autumn we still carry out a review of the forms to ensure that, for example, hyperlinks are working correctly, contact details are still valid and if miscellaneous changes are required. Most SP forms don’t require updating.
Form SPP1
In the case of form SPP1 it has been amended to reflect the changes to the notice period now required by employers when an employee applies for Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) for a baby. The notice period is now 15 weeks (previously it was 28 days) aligning it with the notice required for SP Leave. There is no change to notice for SPP for adoption.
There are three areas changed on this form:
1. Page 1 - Field - “You were not employed by me for long enough” – the information given on the Right Hand side of this field is the same but has been put into a format in line with the rest of the document.
2. Page 1 - Field – “You did not tell me soon enough that you would be away from work” – the information given on the Right Hand side of this field has been updated to include the new 15 weeks notice period required for SPP baby.
3. Page 2 - Hyperlink on page 2 has been corrected and now links with the appropriate Gov.uk webpage.”
The Statutory Payment Consultation Group Statutory Payment Consultation Group (SPCG) is an HMRC sponsored forum allowing HMRC, DWP and BIS to discuss and consult with key stakeholders on statutory payment issues. The Statutory Payments Consultation Group is a sub group of the Employment Payroll Group.