Paternity leave and pay: day-one rights and what you get
You can now take up to two weeks' paternity leave from day one in a job, but paternity pay still needs 26 weeks' service. Here's what you get and when to tell work.
If you're an employee in England, Scotland or Wales and your partner is having a baby, you can take one or two weeks of paternity leave. You can take the weeks together or separately, at any point in the 52 weeks after the birth, and the leave is yours from your first day in the job.
Pay works differently. Statutory Paternity Pay is £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings if that's lower, and you only get it if you've worked for your employer for 26 weeks by the 15th week before your baby's due week and earn at least £129 a week on average. If you've been there for less time, you can still take the leave, but it's unpaid unless your employer has its own scheme.
That same week is your first deadline: before it ends, your employer needs to know the due date. If two weeks isn't enough, unpaid parental leave and Shared Parental Leave can add more time.
How much paternity leave you get and when to take it
You choose one week or two. Two weeks can be taken in one go or as two separate weeks, always in whole weeks. A week means your usual working week, so if you only work Mondays and Tuesdays, a week of paternity leave is those two days.
The leave can't start before the birth, and it has to be finished within 52 weeks of it (or of the due date, if your baby arrives early). That leaves room to take one week straight away and keep the other for later, for example when your partner goes back to work.
While you're off, your job is protected. You keep building up holiday, you get any pay rise that comes in and you have the right to go back to your job. Your employer must not treat you worse, or dismiss you, because you take or plan to take paternity leave.
Who can take paternity leave
You can take it if you're the baby's father, the mother's husband or partner (including in a same-sex couple) or an intended parent through surrogacy, and you're taking the time to look after the baby or support the mother. Separated fathers can take it too if they have ongoing responsibility for bringing up the child.
It's a right for employees. If you're classed as a 'worker', as some agency workers are, you can't get statutory paternity leave, though you may still qualify for paternity pay.
If your baby comes early, late or needs hospital care
If you give a general start point such as the day of the birth, your leave moves with the baby. If you named a fixed date and the baby is late, tell your employer your new start date as soon as you can. If the baby arrives early or has to stay in hospital, you can move your start date, for example to the day your baby comes home.
If your baby needs neonatal care for 7 full days in a row or more, starting within 28 days of the birth, you can also take Neonatal Care Leave: one week for every 7 days in care, up to 12 weeks, on top of your paternity leave. The leave is available from your first day in the job. Statutory Neonatal Care Pay, at the same weekly rate as paternity pay, needs 26 weeks with your employer and average earnings of at least £129 a week.
Paternity pay: how much you get and who qualifies
Statutory Paternity Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. That's the rate for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, which started on 6 April 2026. It's paid the same way as your wages, weekly or monthly, with tax and National Insurance taken off.
To get it, you need to:
- have worked for your employer without a break for at least 26 weeks by the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before the week your baby is due
- still work for them when the baby is born
- earn at least £129 a week on average before tax, over the 8 weeks up to the qualifying week
- give the right notice, explained in the next section
In practice, those 26 weeks mean starting the job roughly 40 weeks before the week your baby is due, so around the start of the pregnancy. If you changed jobs after that, you can still take paternity leave, but you won't get statutory pay for it.
What that adds up to
- If you earn £520 a week before tax, 90% is £468, so you get the £194.32 maximum: £388.64 for two weeks, before tax and National Insurance.
- If you earn £180 a week, 90% is £162, so you get £162 a week.
- If you earn less than £129 a week on average, there's no statutory pay, though you can still take the leave.
Your employer may have a company scheme that pays more, so check your contract or staff handbook. If you qualify, they can't pay you less than the statutory amount, and if they decide you don't, they must tell you why within 28 days, using form SPP1.
When to tell your employer
There are two steps to booking paternity leave:
- Before the end of the qualifying week, the 15th week before your due week: tell your employer the due date and that you plan to take paternity leave. You can use GOV.UK's online paternity form, which replaced form SC3, or your employer's own form if it has one. You don't need proof of the pregnancy.
- At least 28 days before your leave starts: confirm when you want it to start and whether you're taking one week or two. A general point such as the day of the birth, or a week after it, is fine. If you take the weeks separately, give 28 days' notice before each one.
To change a start date, tell your employer 28 days beforehand, or as soon as you can if the baby comes early or late.
For example, if your baby is due on Friday 14 May 2027, your due week starts on Sunday 9 May. Count back 15 weeks and the qualifying week runs from Sunday 24 to Saturday 30 January 2027, so your employer needs to know by Friday 29 January. For paternity pay, you'd need to have started the job by around the start of August 2026. GOV.UK's paternity leave and pay checker works out your own dates.
If you start a new job late in the pregnancy, you may not be able to give 15 weeks' notice. Tell your new employer as soon as you can and explain why.
Time off for antenatal appointments
Before the birth, you can take unpaid time off to go with your partner to two antenatal appointments, for up to 6 and a half hours each. Permanent employees can do this straight away; agency workers need 12 weeks in the job first.
Adding more time: unpaid parental leave and Shared Parental Leave
Two weeks goes quickly. Unpaid parental leave and Shared Parental Leave are the two main ways to add time, and they differ on the questions that matter most: can you take the leave yet, and is it paid?
Unpaid parental leave: up to 4 extra weeks at the birth
You can take up to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave for each child before they turn 18, with a limit of 4 weeks a year for each child unless your employer agrees to more. It's taken in whole weeks and, since 6 April 2026, it's available from your first day in the job. You need to be named on the birth certificate or have parental responsibility, and like paternity leave it's for employees, not workers.
Right after the birth is the easiest time to use it. Give your employer 21 days' notice before the week the baby is due, and you can take up to 4 weeks of unpaid parental leave from the day of the birth, then go straight on to paternity leave. Your employer can't postpone parental leave that a father or partner takes immediately after a birth, so that's up to six weeks at home, two of them paid if you qualify for paternity pay.
Shared Parental Leave: sharing the rest of the year
Shared Parental Leave lets the mother end her maternity leave and pay early and share what's left with you: up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between you, used in the baby's first year. You can be off at the same time or take turns, in up to 3 blocks each (more if your employer agrees), with at least 8 weeks' notice before each block. Statutory Shared Parental Pay is the same £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings if that's lower.
For example, if the mother takes 22 weeks of maternity leave and pay, you can share the remaining 30 weeks of leave and 17 weeks of pay.
Shared Parental Leave is not a day-one right. You need 26 weeks with your employer by the end of the 15th week before the due date, and you have to stay with them until the week before your leave starts; the pay also needs average earnings of at least £129 a week. The mother has to pass a work test too: working in at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the due week and earning £390 or more across 13 of them.
You can now take paternity leave before or after Shared Parental Leave. If you save it until after, make sure it still finishes within 52 weeks of the birth.
Northern Ireland, adoption and bereavement
If you work in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has its own rules, set out on nidirect, and the April 2026 day-one changes don't apply there. You still need 26 weeks with your employer by the end of the 15th week before the due week to take paternity leave, two weeks must be taken one after the other and finish within 56 days of the birth, and you can't take paternity leave after Shared Parental Leave.
Adopting or having a baby through surrogacy
Adoptive parents and intended parents through surrogacy can get paternity leave and pay too, with different timing and notice rules, set out in GOV.UK's adoption and surrogacy section. Once you're matched with a child, you can take unpaid time off for 2 adoption appointments. If you take paid time off for adoption appointments instead, you can't also get paternity leave and pay.
If you lose your baby or your partner
If your baby is stillborn from 24 weeks of pregnancy, or is born alive at any stage of pregnancy and then dies, you can still get paternity leave and pay. You can take leave you'd already booked as planned, and you can book any leave you have left as long as you take it within 8 weeks of the death. You may also be able to get Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave.
If your baby's mother dies before your child's first birthday, Bereaved Partner's Paternity Leave lets you take unpaid leave until your child turns one, up to 52 weeks, in one continuous block. It covers deaths on or after 6 April 2026, applies to employees in England, Scotland and Wales from their first day in the job, and can be taken before or after any other leave and pay you're entitled to. The same applies if the main adopter or main intended parent dies. GOV.UK's guide explains how to give notice.
