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Statutory Adoption Pay Calculator

The Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) Calculator will help you to work out if you have to pay SAP to your employee and if so how much SAP you have to pay them. It will also help you to work out how much SAP recovery you can get.

SAP is available to any employee (male or female) who is:

  • an individual adopting a child on their own
  • one member of a couple adopting a child together

Note: SAP is only available to adoptive parents who have been matched with a child under UK law or who have been declared eligible by UK social services to adopt a child from abroad. Private adoptions which do not involve the UK authorities are not covered.

On this page:

News and updates

1) The SAP calculator includes the new rates of SAP from 3 April 2011.
This calculator will produce a correct result in all calculation except when you select to align the SAP pay week with the employee’s normal pay and it includes payment for 3 April 2011. SAP for complete weeks including 3 April are not affected.

If you find you need to calculate to align the SAP pay week with the employee's normal pay and it includes payment for the 3 April, you may wish to download HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC's) Basic PAYE toolkit which includes a SAP calculator. You'll find a link at the end of this section.

HMRC apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and will provide a further update on this page when the problem has been resolved.

2) For directors of companies incorporated after 1 October 2009, there are new company regulations which may affect the director's average weekly earnings for SAP purposes. You'll find more detail in HMRC's publication E16 'Employer Helpbook for Statutory Adoption Pay'. You can download this publication using the link at the end of this section. Alternatively, you can contact the Employer Helpline - you can find their contact details in the 'Further help' section at the end of this guide.

Download Basic PAYE Tools from the Business Link website (Opens new window)

Go to E16: Employer Helpbook for Statutory Adoption Pay

Calculate Statutory Adoption Pay

What you need before using this calculator

To work out how much SAP you will have to pay you will need:

  • A copy of the matching certificate or, in the case of an adoption from abroad, a copy of the Official Notification from the relevant UK authority that they have agreed that your employee is suitable to adopt a child from overseas.
  • The date the child is expected to be placed or the date the child is expected to enter the United Kingdom.
  • Your employee's gross pay amounts for the dates that your employee was paid in the 'relevant period' (the period used to calculate average weekly earnings). The calculator will work out this period for you.
  • The date your employee started working for you.
  • To check whether your employee's gross earnings attract Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs).

To calculate the recovery of SAP you can get you will need:

  • the amount of SAP you are liable to pay as calculated by the calculator
  • details of your gross Class 1 NICs liability for the relevant tax year

If you experience problems printing result pages on the calculator try setting the page orientation from portrait to landscape.

Should any faults come to your attention please refer to HMRC's online services page on reporting problems using the link below.

Online services - report a problem

Use our online tool to calculate your employee's Statutory Adoption Pay

Further help

Calculating and recovering SAP

Go to E16: Employer Helpbook for Statutory Adoption Pay

Find contact details for HMRC's Employer Helpline