In last week's newsletter, we reproduced some estimated figures from the DTI on the take-up of paid paternity and adoption leave during 2003/04. We asked the Inland Revenue to comment on the seeming impossibility of an average SPP payment of £;206.41. The maximum weekly payment during 2003/04 was £;100 and the maximum payment period was 2 weeks. It would be expected that the average would be lower than £;200 as employees have the choice of taking one or two weeks paid leave.

The Inland Revenue's reply to our query is as follows:

"I have spoken with our stats people and they explained that the inaccuracies occur because these figures were based on a small sample containing unverified information supplied to IR. The DTI website does describe the figures as 'rough' and this apparently is an understatement. Full figures will not be available until much later when complete data can be analysed."

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