The Department for the Economy has brought into force the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (Employment and Earnings) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 (SR 2026/74). Effective from 6 April 2026, the instrument converts Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) into a day‑one entitlement and rewrites the earnings framework to ensure eligibility can be established using both actual and expected pay. It amends the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 and the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (Persons Abroad and Mariners) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022.
The Regulations were made on 1 April 2026 and laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly for approval within six months of commencement, as required by section 172(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992. They were made with the concurrence of HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury where those consents are required by the 1992 Acts, as recorded on legislation.gov.uk.
Day‑one eligibility is delivered by removing the 26‑week continuous service requirement from the General Regulations. The Department’s note confirms this implements sections 3 and 5 of the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, which mandate SPBP without a minimum qualifying period and allow entitlement to be determined on reasonable assumptions about expected earnings.
Regulation 19 on “normal weekly earnings” is recast around an 8‑week reference period. Actual earnings over the 8 weeks identified in the Act form the core calculation, with explicit rules to bridge any days between the end of that period and the first day of bereavement. Amounts due are treated as earned even if paid later; back‑dated pay rises are attributed to the relevant period; and where there is no identifiable normal pay day, the rules operate by reference to the day of payment. These provisions are aimed at ensuring atypical pay cycles do not block access.
A new regulation 19A defines “expected normal weekly earnings” for forward‑looking assessments. For the 7 weeks immediately after the week of bereavement, and for any shorter continuous period within that window, earnings are based on what the worker could reasonably be expected to earn. The calculation can also cover any days in the week of bereavement itself, which are then combined with actual earnings for that week to produce a single figure for entitlement under the Act.
Regulation 19A specifies the evidence to be used when projecting expected earnings: contractual rate of pay, normal working hours, earlier representative pay before the 8‑week historic window, pre‑arranged unpaid absences unrelated to entitlement, and any other reasonable information. It also requires the assumption that employment continues for the remainder of the forward 8‑week window even if it is due to end sooner, preventing short‑term contract endings from undermining eligibility.
Where, on the first day of bereavement, two or more employers are treated as one under the General Regulations, those employments are aggregated for expected‑earnings purposes and liability for SPBP is apportioned by agreement or, failing agreement, in proportion to each employment’s share of the aggregated expected earnings. This clarifies responsibility in multi‑employer or group payroll scenarios.
The weekly amount payable is clarified in regulation 20. Where the worker meets the statutory weekly earnings threshold by reference to any permitted combination of the historic 8‑week period, the week of bereavement and the forward 7‑week window, the weekly rate is set at 90% of the relevant calculated figure. Detailed formulas are provided for each combination in new paragraphs (1A) to (1H), ensuring that workers with fluctuating or seasonal earnings are assessed on a representative basis. The existing alternative rate in the General Regulations remains available where the 90% calculation is not used.
Regulation 21 on interaction with contractual remuneration is updated to include entitlement arising “by reason of experiencing a miscarriage”. This aligns the treatment of contractual pay and SPBP where miscarriage is the qualifying event, avoiding unintended offsets not contemplated when the 2022 framework was first drafted.
A strengthened anti‑avoidance rule replaces regulation 22. If an employer ends employment solely or mainly to avoid SPBP liability, the former employer remains liable to pay. In such cases the worker is treated as if employed up to the week of bereavement, and normal or expected earnings are determined under regulations 19 and 19A. This targets dismissal‑to‑avoid‑pay practices and supports the operation of SPBP as a day‑one right.
The Persons Abroad and Mariners Regulations are amended to recognise miscarriage and to count certain EEA employment as if it were in Northern Ireland for SPBP purposes where the worker is subject to UK social security under EU coordination rules (Regulation 1408/71 or 883/2004, as amended). Periods worked for the same employer in an EEA state within the relevant 8‑week look‑back are treated as employment in Northern Ireland, and expected employment in the forward 8‑week window can also be counted on the same basis.
For administration, the “relevant week” in these cross‑border provisions is defined as the week immediately before the week in which the child dies or the miscarriage is experienced. The changes mean, for example, that a worker seconded to an EEA state but remaining within the UK social security system can meet the earnings test for SPBP even if most recent or imminent work is outside Northern Ireland.
For employers and payroll teams, the practical tasks now include updating payroll rules to calculate normal and expected earnings across the specified windows, capturing contractual rates and hours for projections, recording pre‑arranged unpaid absences, and ensuring processes exist to apportion liability where employments are aggregated. The Department for the Economy’s regulatory impact assessment, published on 23 February 2026, sets out the expected compliance effects and is available from the Department’s website.