Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to review the rate at which small businesses can recover statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave pay.

Priti Patel

Small employers, defined as those who have paid £45,000 or less in gross national insurance in the preceding tax year, can recover all of the Statutory Maternity, Adoption, Paternity and Shared Parental Pay they pay out plus an additional amount in compensation for the employer’s share of the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) due on the statutory payments.

The current rate of compensation paid to small employers is 3%. The Statutory Maternity Pay (Compensation of Employers) and Miscellaneous Amendment Regulations 1994 set out how compensation is calculated and, in addition, require it to be assessed annually which is done alongside the annual uprating of benefits.

The rate derived for Statutory Maternity Pay is also applied to Statutory Adoption, Paternity and Shared Parental Pay.