SC3 Form: Statutory Paternity Pay

What is the SC3 form, in plain English?

The SC3 form is the self-certificate employees use to claim Statutory Paternity Pay and Paternity Leave from their employer when they become a birth parent. You give it to your employer at least 15 weeks before the baby is due. For 2026/27, Statutory Paternity Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

You do not claim Statutory Paternity Pay from HMRC or the Department for Work and Pensions directly. You claim it through your employer, and the form is how you tell your employer three things: that you meet the conditions, when the baby is due, and when you want your leave and pay to run.

The form's own subtitle is "becoming a parent", and it is published by HM Revenue and Customs. These days most people complete the online version on GOV.UK, then download or print it for their employer — GOV.UK's current guidance calls it the online form that was previously called form SC3. The paper SC3 and the online form do the same job.

Who has to complete the SC3 form?

You complete the SC3 form if you are an employee who is about to become a parent through a birth, and you want to claim Statutory Paternity Leave, Statutory Paternity Pay, or both. The form is designed for:

• The baby's father
• The mother's husband, wife, civil partner or partner — including same-sex partners
• Anyone in the above positions who will have responsibility for the child's upbringing and will take time off to support the mother or care for the child

On the form you must be able to declare all three of the following statements:

• You are the baby's father, or the mother's husband or partner
• You will have responsibility for the child's upbringing
• You will take time off work to support the mother or to care for the child

If you cannot honestly tick all three boxes, you are not entitled through this route, and you should talk to your employer about other options such as unpaid parental leave.

Two situations use a different route instead: adoption, which has its own form and deadlines covered below, and employers who run their own paternity form or HR portal process — where one exists, GOV.UK advises using your employer's version.

Who is eligible for Statutory Paternity Pay?

Statutory Paternity Pay has stricter conditions than paternity leave itself, and the SC3 form is where you confirm that you meet them. According to GOV.UK, to get Statutory Paternity Pay you must meet all of the following conditions:

• You are an employee, and you are still employed by your employer up to the date the baby is born
• You have been continuously employed by your employer for at least 26 weeks up to the end of any day in the qualifying week
• You earn an average of at least £129 a week (before tax)
• You give your employer the correct notice
• You are taking the time off to look after the child or support the mother, and you have responsibility for the child's upbringing

The qualifying week is the 15th week before the baby is due. It is the fixed measuring point for both the 26-week service test and the earnings test, so it is worth working out early. If you count back 15 weeks from the week the baby is due, that week is when your employment history and your average earnings are assessed.

The earnings test uses a set eight-week period, often called the relevant period, which ends with the qualifying week. Your employer works out your average from your pay in that period; £129 a week or more (before tax) passes the test. If you are paid monthly, your employer converts your pay into a weekly figure for the same test.

UK Payroll Calculators is a free UK payroll calculator hub that helps employees and small employers check figures like these before they commit to dates, and you can use the paternity pay calculator on this site to estimate what your own 1 or 2 weeks of pay would look like at the 2026/27 rate.

One further point from the GOV.UK guidance is worth knowing early: you can still get Paternity Pay and Leave if the worst happens. GOV.UK confirms the entitlement still applies if your baby is stillborn from 24 weeks of pregnancy, or born alive at any point during the pregnancy.

What is the difference between eligibility for leave and eligibility for pay?

Paternity Leave and Statutory Paternity Pay have different entry conditions, and confusing the two causes real problems.

For Paternity Leave, you must be an employee and you must give the correct notice. That is all. GOV.UK states clearly that you are eligible for Paternity Leave from the first day of employment — there is no minimum service requirement for the time off itself.

For Statutory Paternity Pay, you must additionally meet the service, earnings and still-employed tests set out in the eligibility section above.

So three common situations play out like this:

• You have worked for your employer for a year and earn above the threshold: you get both leave and pay
• You started your job two months ago: you get the leave, but not the statutory pay, because the 26-week test for pay is not met
• You are self-employed or an agency worker in some arrangements: you may not get either through this route, and different rules apply

When do you have to give the SC3 form to your employer?

There are two separate notice deadlines, and mixing them up is the mistake that causes most problems. GOV.UK sets them out as follows.

The first deadline is about information. You must tell your employer the baby's due date at least 15 weeks before the baby is expected, and your claim for Paternity Pay must also be made at least 15 weeks before the week the baby is expected. Completing the SC3 form (or the online version) and handing it to your employer does both at once.

The second deadline is about your actual leave dates. At least 28 days before you want your Paternity Leave to start, you must tell your employer when you want the leave to start and whether you want 1 week or 2 weeks. You do not have to give an exact calendar date if that is impractical — GOV.UK confirms you can give a general timing instead, such as the day of the birth, or one week after the birth.

If you later change your mind about when your leave starts, you must give your employer 28 days' notice of the change before the block of leave is due to begin. Completing a fresh SC3 when dates change keeps everyone working from the same written record.

There is one temporary exception. If your baby is due before 25 July 2026 and you will have been employed for less than 26 weeks by the qualifying week, you do not need to give the full 15 weeks' notice of the due date, although the 28 days' notice of your leave start date still applies. GOV.UK's employer guidance puts the window as babies due between 5 April 2026 and 25 July 2026. If your baby is due on or after 26 July 2026, both of the usual notice periods apply in full.

And if the baby arrives before you managed to hand the form in, complete it and give it to your employer as soon as possible, confirming both the date the baby was due and the actual date of birth — GOV.UK's guidance says this should be accepted as being on time.

How much is Statutory Paternity Pay in 2026/27?

For the 2026/27 tax year, GOV.UK sets the statutory weekly rate of Paternity Pay at £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. That gives two simple quotable figures:

• If your average weekly earnings are around £216 a week or more, 90% of your earnings is above the cap, so you receive the flat rate of £194.32 a week
• If your average weekly earnings are below that point, you receive 90% of your average weekly earnings instead

The money is paid by your employer through the normal payroll, in the same way as your wages — weekly or monthly, matching your usual pay pattern. Tax and National Insurance are deducted from it, just as they are from ordinary pay. Your employer must confirm the start and end dates for your Paternity Pay when you claim it.

Remember that the £194.32 figure is a floor, not a ceiling. Many employers run their own paternity scheme and pay full pay, or pay the first week in full and the second at the statutory rate. Your contract or staff handbook will tell you. What an employer can never do is pay less than the statutory amount to someone who qualifies.

How long can Paternity Leave and Paternity Pay last?

You can take either 1 week or 2 weeks of Paternity Leave. If you take 2 weeks, you can take them together as one block, or separately as two one-week blocks at different times — GOV.UK confirms both patterns are allowed. You get the same total amount of leave even if you have more than one child, so twins do not double the entitlement.

A "week" of paternity leave means your normal working week. If you normally work only on Mondays and Tuesdays, one week of your leave is 2 days. This matters when you fill in the form: your employer needs to know the pattern you work so the right number of days is booked and paid.

Two timing rules control when the leave can sit:

• Your leave cannot start before the birth — the earliest start dates are the date of birth itself, a set number of days after the birth, or a fixed date after the birth
• Your leave must end within 52 weeks of the baby's birth (or the due date, if the baby is early)

Statutory Paternity Pay is paid for the weeks of leave you actually take, up to the 2-week maximum, and it is usually paid while you are on leave — so splitting your leave into two blocks also splits the pay into two payments at different times.

While you are on paternity leave, your employment rights are protected. GOV.UK lists the rights that continue: you still build up holiday, you remain entitled to pay rises, and you have the right to return to work. You also have a separate right to unpaid time off to accompany your partner to 2 antenatal appointments, up to 6 and a half hours each.

How do you fill in the SC3 form, box by box?

The form is short, and most of it takes five minutes. The online version is filled in on screen, then downloaded or printed and handed to your employer — it cannot be saved half-finished, so have your details in front of you before you start. The paper SC3 asks for the same things. Here is what each part is for.

First, the declaration. Before anything else, you tick three boxes confirming that you are the baby's father or the mother's husband or partner, that you will have responsibility for the child's upbringing, and that you will take the time off to support the mother or care for the child. If you cannot tick all three, stop — the statutory route does not apply to you, and signing anyway creates a false declaration that your employer is entitled to act on.

Next, your personal details: your full name and your National Insurance number. Use the name exactly as it appears on your payroll record. A mismatched name or a mistyped National Insurance number is the most mundane reason claims get stuck in a payroll queue, and it is entirely avoidable.

Then the date the baby is due. Write the due date you have already been given, and keep it consistent with anything else you have told your employer. This date matters more than any other on the form, because your qualifying week — the week your 26 weeks of service and your average earnings are measured against — is counted back 15 weeks from the week the baby is due. A wrong due date quietly shifts every test your employer runs.

Then your leave dates. You state when you want your Statutory Paternity Pay and leave to start. You do not need to predict the actual birth date: the form works with answers like "the day the baby is born" or "one week after the baby is born", and GOV.UK confirms that a general timing is acceptable. Say whether you want 1 week or 2, and if you already know you want the 2 weeks split into separate blocks, say so — your employer would rather plan around that now than be surprised later.

Finally, sign and date it. An unsigned form is not a declaration, and employers are within their rights to hand it back. If you complete the online version, the signature step is handled as part of the download process — follow the on-screen instructions rather than printing and signing twice.

Employers sometimes add one more request: your payroll or staff number, if you know it. It is not part of the statutory declaration, but adding it where your employer asks for it speeds up matching the form to your record.

What if you are adopting or having a baby through a surrogate?

Adoption and surrogacy sit under the same paternity pay and leave umbrella, but they do not use the SC3 form, and their deadlines are different. Getting the right form matters, because the birth-parent timetable does not apply.

If you are adopting within the UK, you claim using the online form for adoptive parents, which replaces the old form SC4. Your qualifying week is the week you are matched with the child, and you must claim within 7 days of being matched — so complete it the week the match is confirmed, not the week the child arrives. One more difference: for adoption, proof is needed for the pay. Your employer must see evidence such as a letter from the adoption agency or the matching certificate, and must keep a copy. If you are adopting from overseas, a separate online form replaces the old form SC5, and the notice rules differ again — the form itself walks you through them.

If you are an intended parent in a surrogacy arrangement, you also use the online form rather than the SC3. You claim within 28 days, or as soon as you reasonably can, before you want your leave or pay to start, and you must tell your employer at least 15 weeks before the baby is due that you plan to claim. To get Statutory Paternity Pay you must also give your employer a written statement confirming that you intend to apply for a parental order in the 6 months after the child's birth and that you expect the court to grant it. You and your partner must be in a couple and share responsibility for the child, and the 26-week service test for pay runs to the same qualifying week as a birth — the 15th week before the baby is due.

What happens after you hand the form in?

Your employer does the rest. If you qualify, they pay your Statutory Paternity Pay through the normal payroll on your normal paydays, deduct tax and National Insurance, and confirm your pay start and end dates to you. Keep your copy of the form and that confirmation together; if a payment looks wrong later, those two documents are what you check it against.

A worked example shows how the pay lands. Suppose your average weekly earnings in the relevant period were £250. Ninety per cent of £250 is £225, which is above the statutory cap, so you receive the flat rate: £194.32 a week, £388.64 for a 2-week block, before tax and National Insurance. Now suppose your average weekly earnings were £180, perhaps because you work part-time. Ninety per cent of £180 is £162, which is below the cap, so you receive £162 a week — £324 over 2 weeks. The dividing line is £215.91 a week: earn above it on average and you are on the flat rate; earn below it and you are on 90%.

If your employer decides you do not qualify, they cannot simply say no and leave it there. They must give you form SPP1 within 28 days of your request, explaining why you do not qualify. Read the reason before you do anything else, because most refusals come down to one of three checkable things: the 26-week service count, the £129 average earnings figure, or notice given late. You can ask your employer for a written statement of their decision, and GOV.UK's employer guidance says this should be given within a reasonable time, such as 7 working days. Work the figures yourself — your service dates and your payslips for the eight-week relevant period will settle most disagreements one way or the other. The SC3 form itself notes that you can challenge a decision you believe is wrong.

What should employers do when an SC3 form lands on their desk?

For small employers, the SC3 is often the first statutory payment they have ever handled, so here is the whole job in one place.

First, check the entitlement properly rather than by feel. The employee needs 26 weeks of continuous service up to the qualifying week, average earnings of at least £129 a week across the eight-week relevant period, and to still be employed by you when the baby is born. Take a copy of the employee's declaration for your records and return the original. If the employee does not qualify, the SPP1 form must go to them within 28 days, with the reason.

Second, pay it like wages: through payroll, on the usual payday, with tax and National Insurance deducted. Then reclaim it. Employers usually recover 92% of statutory paternity pay from HMRC through the payroll; if you qualify for Small Employers' Relief you can reclaim 109% instead, which means the payment can cost you nothing and slightly more than nothing respectively. If cash flow is the problem, GOV.UK notes that you can apply for an advance of statutory payments rather than delay paying the employee — and the obligation to pay does not disappear even if you stop trading.

Third, keep the paperwork. HMRC requires records of the pay period start date, every payment made with its date, amounts reclaimed, and any weeks not paid and why, kept for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to. The form SPP2 exists for this, or you can keep your own equivalent records.

If you run a small payroll, the same checking discipline applies to sick pay, which is why this site also maintains an SSP calculator for Statutory Sick Pay alongside the paternity tools.

What are the most common SC3 mistakes?

Almost every problem with this form is one of these five.

Leaving it too late. The 15-week deadline for telling your employer the due date and claiming pay is the one with no flexibility in the ordinary run of things. Put a reminder in your phone for 16 weeks before the due date and treat that as your real deadline.

Confusing leave with pay. New starters are the classic case: entitled to the time off from day one, not entitled to the money until 26 weeks of service are in place. If that is you, the form is still worth submitting — it secures the leave formally — but budget for the weeks being unpaid unless your employer's own scheme covers you.

Guessing the due date. Your qualifying week, and therefore both the service test and the earnings test, hangs off the due week you write down. Use the date you have been given, not an estimate from memory.

Forgetting that changes need notice too. Moving your start date, or deciding to split your 2 weeks after submitting the form, requires 28 days' notice before the block of leave begins. Employers can lawfully delay a start date where notice was short without a reasonable excuse, which is an argument nobody needs in the week a baby is due.

Assuming you need evidence you do not have. Birth parents do not need to produce proof of the pregnancy or the birth, and an employer asking for the MATB1 or medical evidence as a condition of payment is asking for something the rules do not require. Adoption is the exception — there, proof of the match is part of the claim.

Where do you get the official SC3 form?

Get it from GOV.UK, and nowhere else — the form is free, and any site charging for it is charging for something the government gives away. GOV.UK lists it as "Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave: becoming a birth parent (SC3)" in its Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave forms collection, and the same page carries the adoption and parental order versions. Most employees now complete the online version through the GOV.UK paternity pay and leave guide and print or download the completed form for their employer. The employer guide GOV.UK publishes alongside it is at Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave: employer guide, and it is the page to send to a small employer who has never processed one of these before.

NHS staff claiming paternity pay can work out the NHS maternity and paternity pay figures, week by week, in our NHS pay calculator guide.