What is statutory adoption pay?

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## What is Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP)?

### What the law says

Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) is a taxable UK social security benefit payable under **section 171ZL of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA 1992)**. It is also treated as earnings for National Insurance contributions purposes under section 4(1)(a) of the SSCBA 1992.

### HMRC guidance / practice

**Purpose**
SAP is intended to help employees take time off work to be with their new family by providing a measure of earnings replacement. The scheme has applied to children placed with adopters on or after 6 April 2003.

**Qualifying conditions**
To qualify for SAP, an employee must:
- Be a person with whom a child is, or is expected to be, **placed for adoption under UK law** (or, for overseas adoptions, where the child enters the UK);
- **Stop working for, or take leave from**, the employer;
- Have been **continuously employed for at least 26 weeks** continuing into the "matching week" (the week in which the adoption agency notifies them of the match);
- Have **average weekly earnings of not less than the Lower Earnings Limit** for National Insurance purposes at the end of the matching week; and
- Give the employer **at least 28 days' notice** (or as soon as reasonably practicable) of the date from which SAP is expected to begin.

**Duration and the Adoption Pay Period (APP)**
SAP is payable for a **maximum of 39 weeks** — this period is known as the Adoption Pay Period (APP), which can start and end on any day of the week. SAP and adoption leave must be taken in a **single continuous period** — it cannot be split or taken as odd days. An employee is entitled to **only one period** of SAP and adoption leave even if more than one child is placed as part of the same arrangement.

**When the APP can start**
- For UK adoptions: from the date the child is placed, or up to 14 days before the expected placement date.
- For overseas adoptions: on the date the child enters the UK (or the following day if the employee is at work), or on a chosen date no later than 28 days after the child enters the UK.

**Administration**
Employers are responsible for administering the scheme and paying employees the amounts to which they are entitled. HMRC is responsible for ensuring correct administration and providing employers with the funding to which they are entitled.

**Circumstances ending or suspending SAP**
- SAP is **not payable** for any week in which the employee works for the liable employer (other than on a "Keeping in Touch" (KIT) day).
- There is **no entitlement to SAP** for any week in which the employee is in legal custody.
- If the child **dies** after placement, the APP ends eight weeks after the end of the week in which the child dies (unless the APP was due to end sooner).
- If the child is **returned to the adoption agency**, the APP ends eight weeks after the end of the week of return, or the original end date — whichever is earlier.

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