As of 6 April 2026, the Government introduced a number of changes to family leave rights under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
These changes have expanded family leave rights particularly for newer employees.
Businesses must review their current payroll policies, not just for maternity leave but for all members of the family.
What is family leave?
Family leave is a term that covers the different types of time off employees can take to care for a child.
This includes maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave and unpaid parental leave.
Maternity leave remains the most established right, eligible employees can take up to 52 weeks off work, made up of 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave.
Employees must take at least two weeks off after birth or four weeks if they work in a factory.
Paternity leave allows eligible employees to take up to two weeks off following the birth or adoption of a child
And unpaid parental leave allows parents to take up to 18 weeks per child before their 18th birthday.
What are the changes to family leave?
From 6 April 2026 paternity leave and unpaid parental leave have become day one rights, before employees had to meet minimum employment requirements before they could take leave.
Now employees are able to request leave for family reasons from day one of employment, not after one year in the role which was previously the case.
The changes now allow employees to take paternity leave even if they have already taken shared parental leave in relation to the same child.
This improved flexibility for new parents and prevents accidental loss of entitlement.
While these changes are landmark for access to parental leave, the entitlement to statutory pay still depends on specific service and earnings requirements.
What do these changes mean for payroll?
Even though maternity leave rules themselves haven’t changed significantly, the wider changes mean payroll teams need to take a closer look family leave.
The main change is that employees can now take certain types of leave much earlier in their employment.
This removes the previous assumption that new starters would not yet be eligible which many payroll systems were built around.
Because of this businesses should review how leave is handled across their payroll systems.
If systems are still relying on old qualifying periods they could incorrectly reject leave requests or apply the wrong pay.
Employers can usually recover 92 per cent of Statutory Maternity Pay from HMRC, or up to 109 per cent if they qualify for Small Business Relief.
How we can help
Managing family leave through payroll has always required careful planning but now with the new changes it is important that your payroll processes are aligned with current legislation.
Our payroll team is here to ease that burden from businesses and ensure that everything runs smoothly from processing statutory payments to recovering amounts you are entitled to.
Get in touch today for expert help managing family leave through payroll.
