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had to build up a period of service before qualifying for certain family-friendly rights. Statutory paternity leave required 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the employer, and ordinary (unpaid) parental leave required a full year’s service. Those qualifying periods will now be abolished. As of 6 April 2026, new fathers / partners will be able to take paternity leave from day one of employment, and any eligible parent will be able to take unpaid parental leave from day one as well. This change aligns paternity and parental leave with the more inclusive approach the ERA is pursuing. It’s worth noting that what will change here is the entitlement to the leave itself. The conditions for entitlement to statutory paternity pay will remain in place – 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the employer and earnings meeting or exceeding the LEL. In practice, this means a brand-new employee whose child is due could now legally take the two weeks of paternity leave but might have to do so as unpaid leave. Likewise, ordinary parental leave remains unpaid by default. These day-one leave rights don’t introduce new calculations or costs in the same way the SSP reforms do. There
“In future, the Fair Work Agency will be able to step in directly as an enforcer. It will have powers to inspect records, impose penalties and even to bring claims on behalf of workers against non-compliant employers”
thresholds for paternity and parental leave means systems and policies will likely need updating; otherwise, come April 2026, an employee could be wrongly turned away or told they aren’t eligible. While these family leave changes are less technically demanding, they still carry a risk of administrative friction where pre-emptive action isn’t taken. The Fair Work Agency April 2026 will also bring a new regulator. On 7 April 2026, the Government will establish the Fair Work Agency (FWA) as a single enforcement body for employment rights, although its takeover of enforcement from existing bodies will be phased. This new agency consolidates functions that used to be spread across various inspectors and authorities, such as HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) minimum wage enforcement unit. Crucially for payroll, the FWA’s remit includes enforcing SSP compliance. Before, if an employer
rights could attract not only individual grievances but also attention from a regulator empowered to levy fines. The Government’s aim in launching the FWA is to increase scrutiny and compliance across the board, by protecting workers’ legal entitlements and ensuring compliant businesses aren’t undercut by rogue actors. If the FWA follows the approach HMRC’s national minimum wage unit has taken, we can expect a focus on small-to- medium businesses in areas at higher risk of non-compliance. Beyond April The April 2026 changes under the ERA represent just the first wave of a broader reform programme. Later in 2026 and into 2027, additional measures come into force, from limits on ‘fire and rehire’ practices to expanded protections for various workers’ rights. Few are expected to be as well- defined as the April 2026 changes. The sensible approach is for employers to treat the April 2026 changes as a trial run: assess how reviewing processes, updating systems and communicating with
failed to pay SSP correctly, the main recourse for an employee was to go to HMRC or ultimately
to the Tax Tribunal (as the Employment Tribunal has
stakeholders goes and what aspects can be improved. Going forward, businesses should maintain a rolling calendar of upcoming commencement dates, identify which changes will require them to adapt and prepare for these well in advance.
will be no sudden surge of statutory payments to process for paternity or parental leave, since the pay rules are unchanged. Government projections indicate that making these forms of leave available from day one will have limited direct financial impact on employers, precisely for this reason. That said, payroll and HR processes will still require adjustment to accommodate the changes. The removal of service
no jurisdiction over SSP – a quirk of the state-backed origins of SSP). In future, the FWA will be able to step in directly as an enforcer. It will have powers to inspect records, impose penalties and even to bring claims on behalf of workers against non-compliant employers. In practical terms, this will raise the stakes for getting payments right. Payroll errors or oversights that short- change employees on sick pay or other
Paul Chamberlain
Head of Employment and People Solutions, JMW Solicitors
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