Work and Families Act 2006

While the new Work and Families Act 2006 only relates to babies that are due to be born or adopted on or after 1 April 2007, the changes brought about by this act could in fact affect employers much sooner than this as a baby due to be born on or after this date could arrive as early as mid to late November 2006. Payroll software will need to have the legislative rules in place so they can be applied as appropriate, but it also needs to be running the existing legislation for any babies due to be born on 31 March 2007 or earlier.

The changes can be summarised as follows:

• The Maternity Pay Period is extended from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.
• The Maternity Pay Period will be able to start on any day of the week in accordance with the date the woman gives in her notice to her employer of the day she wants her SMP to start. This will allow SMP to align with the start of the woman's maternity leave in all cases.
• A woman will be able to work for an employer paying her SMP for up to 10 days in her maternity pay period and to retain SMP for the week in which any such work is done.
• The weekly rate of SMP can be divided by 7 so that it is easier for the weekly payments of SMP to be aligned with the particular pay practice in the employment (if the employer so chooses).
• The extension of the pay period from 26 to 39 weeks, enabling limited work in the pay period and enabling the weekly rate of payments to be divided by 7 also apply to Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) where the child is expected to be placed for adoption on or after 1 April 2007.
• Dividing the weekly rate by 7 also applies to Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) for babies due on or after 1 April 2007.
• All women, irrespective of their length of service will now qualify for Additional Maternity Leave, which will allow them to take up to a maximum of 52 weeks off work. The same does not apply for Statutory Adoption Leave, so employees will still only be entitled to Additional Adoption Leave if they meet the 26 week service test.
• If women want to change the date of their return to work they must now give their employer 56 days notice, instead of 28 days.

So if you've been notified by any employees that they are expecting a baby or are going to adopt on or after 1 April 2007, you must ensure that your payroll software can handle the changes to legislation. What's more, it is likely that you'll need to apply these before next April so the time to act is now.

Pip Trowles