BASDA HR & Payroll SIG

The Government Response on the Administration Consultation on Shared Parental Leave and Pay  (ShPL&P) was published on Friday.

ShPL & P will be introduced for babies due on or before 5th April 2015.

A first meeting was held with the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and HMRC the day prior to the publication to set a place a framework to provide software developers with a specification for ShPL by the middle of 2014, along with guidance on what to do in the case of an early claimant due to a premature birth. The abolition of ASPP will also be addressed since it will be possible to continue paying existing Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) arrangements up to January 2016, and guidance on how to report this will also be provided.

The group will have sight of the draft regulations early in 2014 with an opportunity to amend impossible requirements, for example NI number being mandatory.

The ShPL1 form will be redrafted by March 2014 and a new form for indicating the leave patterns will be produced. These two forms should contain sufficient information for software to be able to automatically calculate Shared Parental Pay.

It is expected that the regulations will be in place by October 2014.