Handle SPL curtailment, disputed eligibility and refused-booking disputes

How to manage the dispute surface around Shared Parental Leave - curtailment-notice withdrawals, partner eligibility challenges, refusing discontinuous bookings correctly, and the HMRC and Employment Tribunal routes for ShPP and detriment claims.

Guide summary

Handle Shared Parental Leave disputes correctly. Check if a curtailment notice can be withdrawn, challenge partner eligibility properly, and respond to leave requests within 14 days. Use HMRC for pay disputes and Acas for refused leave or unfair treatment claims.

  • Check if a curtailment notice can be withdrawn under 3 specific grounds
  • Challenge partner eligibility within 14 days of notice
  • Respond to discontinuous leave requests within 14 days
  • Default to continuous leave if no response in 14 days
  • Route pay disputes to HMRC, not Employment Tribunal
  • Use Acas for refused leave or unfair treatment claims
  • File tribunal claims within 3 months minus one day
  • Offer redundancy protection for 18 months after birth
  • Keep records of all leave requests and responses
  • Do not demand payslips for partner eligibility checks
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Shared Parental Leave generates a narrow but distinctive dispute surface. The most common flashpoints are: a curtailment notice the birth parent now wants to withdraw; doubts about whether the partner satisfies the employment-and-earnings test; refused discontinuous-block bookings; missed response windows; ShPP entitlement disputes; and detriment or dismissal claims connected with taking SPL. Different routes apply to different disputes - getting the route wrong can cost an employee their claim.

The curtailment notice and when it can be withdrawn

Resolving disputes step by step

  1. 1

    Decide whether a curtailment notice can be withdrawn

    Under regulations 13 and 14 of the Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014, a binding curtailment notice can only be revoked on three grounds. First, the parent or partner is found not to have been entitled to SPL. Second, the partner has died. Third, the notice was given before the birth and the parent withdraws it within 6 weeks of the birth, provided no SPL has yet started. Outside these grounds, the curtailment is irreversible - the parent cannot simply change their mind.

  2. 2

    Challenge the partner employment-and-earnings test

    If you doubt the partner satisfies the test (26 weeks' employment in the past 66 weeks with earnings averaging at least £30 per week in any 13 of them), you may within 14 days of the NoE request reasonable evidence - typically the partner's name, address, employer details and a signed declaration. You cannot demand payslips or contracts. If the declaration is later shown to be false, ShPP overpaid is recoverable from the parent and the leave taken is treated as unauthorised absence.

  3. 3

    Refuse a discontinuous block correctly

    A discontinuous PLN (two or more separate periods in one notice) may be refused, agreed, or met with a counter-proposal. You must respond within 14 days of receiving the notice. If you propose alternative dates, the employee may accept, withdraw the notice, or take the leave as a single continuous block starting on the first requested date. A continuous block cannot be refused.

  4. 4

    Avoid the default-to-single-block trap

    If you do not respond to a discontinuous PLN within 14 days, the request defaults to a single continuous block starting on the first date in the original notice. This default is automatic - you lose the right to refuse or negotiate. Diary the 14-day deadline as soon as a PLN arrives.

  5. 5

    Route ShPP entitlement disputes through HMRC

    If the dispute is whether ShPP is payable, the rate, or the period, the employee can ask HMRC's Statutory Payments Disputes Team for a formal decision. Either party may appeal that decision to the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) within 30 days. The Employment Tribunal has no jurisdiction over ShPP entitlement.

  6. 6

    Route refused-leave and detriment claims through Acas and the Employment Tribunal

    If the dispute is whether SPL was properly refused, or the employee has suffered a detriment or been dismissed for taking or seeking SPL, the route is Acas Early Conciliation followed by an Employment Tribunal claim. Section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 makes dismissal connected with SPL automatically unfair, with no service requirement. The detriment claim is under section 47C.

  7. 7

    Observe the 3-month limitation periods

    Tribunal claims for refused SPL, detriment or unfair dismissal must start Acas Early Conciliation within 3 months less one day of the act complained of. The conciliation period stops the clock. Discrimination claims connected with pregnancy or family status share the same limitation. Late claims are usually struck out.

  8. 8

    Apply extended redundancy protection

    Under the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the implementing regulations, an employee who has taken at least 6 consecutive weeks of SPL has the priority right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy in a redundancy for up to 18 months from the date of birth or placement. Failure to offer such a role when one exists makes the dismissal automatically unfair under ERA 1996 section 99.

Penalty risk
Penalty:
Employment Tribunal awards for automatically unfair dismissal under ERA 1996 section 99 (dismissal connected with SPL) are uncapped on the compensatory element where the dismissal is also discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010. Where it is not discriminatory, the compensatory award is subject to the standard statutory cap (the lower of 52 weeks' pay or the prevailing statutory maximum). Detriment awards under ERA 1996 section 47C are uncapped and based on injury to feelings and financial loss. Failure to offer a suitable alternative vacancy under the extended redundancy protection makes the dismissal automatically unfair on the same basis.