Statutory benefits

Statutory payments that increase from 6 April, include statutory sick pay (SSP), which becomes payable after three consecutive days off work sick. SSP increases from £81.60 to £85.85 a week.

Statutory maternity and adoption pay, along with the maternity allowance — paid to pregnant women/mothers who don’t qualify for statutory maternity pay — increases from £128.73 to £135.45 week.

Maternity and adoption pay lasts for 39 weeks — six weeks at 90% of normal earnings and 33 weeks at the statutory rate, unless earnings are below the lower earnings limit (LEL).

The LEL — the minimum amount that someone must earn in order to claim most workplace-related statutory benefits — increases from £102 to £107 a week.

Statutory paternity pay — both ordinary and additional, where a mother transfers maternity leave to her partner — rises to £135.45 a week.