Form SC3: How to Complete, Submit, and Claim Statutory Paternity Pay

Form SC3 for Statutory Paternity Pay is the declaration you complete on GOV.UK to claim paternity leave and pay from your employer after a birth. You fill it in online, print or download it, and give the copy to your employer’s payroll or HR team. It does not go to HMRC.¹ The GOV.UK online service has replaced the old paper SC3, although employers and payroll still use the SC3 name.² The form itself is short; the deadlines and eligibility rules around it are what usually cause problems.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Gather three things before you open the form:

Your National Insurance number, a nine-character code (two letters, six digits, one letter). It appears on payslips, your P60, or tax correspondence.
The expected week of childbirth, which is on the MAT B1 certificate provided by the midwife or doctor.
Your intended leave dates, and whether you want one week or two.

Filling In the Form

Open the GOV.UK page for Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave and follow the link to the online form.³ You complete it in the browser, then download or print a copy for your employer.¹

The form asks for your full legal name, residential address, and National Insurance number. You then enter the expected week of childbirth and say when you want your leave to start. That can be the day of the birth itself or a specific date after it. You also choose one week or two weeks of leave.

A declaration section asks you to confirm your relationship to the child and that you are taking the time off to care for the child or support the mother. It is a formal statement of truth. Giving false information can lead to disciplinary consequences and having to repay any Statutory Paternity Pay you received.

Check the expected week of childbirth on the form against the MAT B1 before you submit. A mismatch is one of the most common reasons employers return the form for correction.

When to Give the Form to Your Employer

Two notice rules apply, and they are easy to confuse:

You must tell your employer the baby’s expected due date no later than 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. Submitting the completed form satisfies this.¹
You must give at least 28 days’ notice of the date you want your leave to start and how much leave you want.²

You can meet both by submitting the form well before the 15-week mark with your intended leave start filled in. If you later want to change the start date, give your employer at least 28 days’ notice before either the original or the new date.

If the baby arrives earlier than expected, you are not penalised for missing the deadlines. Tell your employer as soon as reasonably possible and give them the actual date of birth so payroll can adjust.¹

Where the Form Goes

Submit the completed form to your employer’s payroll or HR team. It does not go to HMRC or any government office.¹ Your employer checks it against their records, confirms your eligibility, and pays SPP through payroll. Keep a copy for yourself in case a dispute comes up later.

Who Qualifies

Paternity leave and Statutory Paternity Pay have separate eligibility tests. From April 2026, paternity leave is a day-one employment right: you qualify from your first day with the employer.⁴ SPP still requires 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer, counted up to the end of any day in the qualifying week (the 15th week before the baby is due).⁵ A newer employee can therefore take unpaid paternity leave without qualifying for SPP.

You must also be one of the following:

The child’s biological father
The husband, civil partner, or partner of the mother, including same-sex partners
The intended parent in a surrogacy arrangement

For SPP, your average weekly earnings must meet or exceed the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance, which is £129 a week for 2026–27.⁶ Earnings are averaged over the eight weeks ending with the qualifying week.⁷ Below that threshold you can still take the leave but you will not receive SPP.

Self-employed workers are not eligible for either paternity leave or Statutory Paternity Pay; there is no statutory equivalent for the self-employed.

What You Get After Submitting

You can take up to two weeks of paternity leave. Since April 2024, those weeks no longer have to be consecutive. You can take them together or as two separate one-week blocks, giving 28 days’ notice for each block. All paternity leave must end within 52 weeks of the baby’s birth.⁴⁸

For 2026–27, SPP is paid at £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.⁶ Your employer pays it through payroll on your normal payday, with the usual Income Tax and National Insurance deductions.⁹ Some employers offer enhanced paternity pay on top of the statutory minimum; check your contract or staff handbook. The SC3 process is the same either way.

If Your Employer Refuses to Pay

If your employer decides you do not qualify for SPP, they must give you a written explanation on form SPP1, which sets out the reason. Common reasons are insufficient employment history, earnings below the Lower Earnings Limit, late notification, or working during a week you claimed pay for.¹⁰

If you disagree, raise it with your employer in writing first. If that does not resolve it, contact HMRC’s Statutory Payment Dispute Team, which can make an independent decision on your entitlement. The dispute must be raised within six months of the date payment should have been made.¹¹ The team can be reached on 0300 322 9422, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, or by post at Statutory Payment Dispute Team, PT Operations, North East England, HMRC, BX9 1AN.

Keep everything: the SPP1, emails with your employer, payslips from the relevant period, and your copy of the SC3. That paperwork is the basis of any case that goes further.

One boundary worth naming. If a baby is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy, you still qualify for paternity leave and SPP under the normal rules. Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave is a separate entitlement that can be claimed alongside them.¹²

1
GOV.UK. Paternity Pay and Leave: How to Claim
2
GOV.UK. Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave: Employer Guide – Notice Period
3
GOV.UK. Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave: Becoming a Birth Parent (SC3)
4
Acas. Taking Paternity Leave
5
GOV.UK. Paternity Pay and Leave – Eligibility
6
GOV.UK. Rates and Thresholds for Employers 2026 to 2027
7
Acas. Statutory Paternity Pay
8
GOV.UK. Paternity Pay and Leave – Leave
9
GOV.UK. Paternity Pay and Leave – Pay
10
GOV.UK. Non-Payment of Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP1)
11
GOV.UK. Statutory Payment Dispute Team
12
GOV.UK. Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave