Paternity Leave

v.rajput

Hello, all u really helpfull ppl outthere!

I was not allowed to have paid paternity leave last year as i had not been with the company for more than a 1yr, now i have just read that employment law states that it should be 26.5weeks.

My payroll dept, have now told be i should have work 39weeks, which i would have been two weeks short.

However someone within my company has sent me a link to Monster.coms employment law page.

I still cant see anything apart from a 26.5 weeks qaul period?

Has anyone else been thru this? Is each company different?


Thanks for all your help!

Liz_the_Whizz

Hi v,

I think I see the problem - to qualify for statutory paternity pay/leave, you have to have 26 weeks service at the 15th week before your baby is due.

So in practice, that means you will have at least 40 weeks service by the baby's due date.

Unfortunately sounds like your Payroll people are right on this one and you missed out by a whisker - sorry!

clairec79

What it means if if you would have qualified if baby had been born on time they aren't going to penalise you if baby turns up 3 months early.

As Liz said on this they are right

v.rajput

Thanks guys,

Damn really wanted to get one over my manager too!!

If my "due date" was past the 39/40 weeks, and length of service was within the 15weeks before due date, then i would have qualified?

If thats correct then i will got up to the loft and check the old maternity papers.
Baby was slightly early.....

honeypop

It makes no difference if baby came early, it's worked out on the 'Estimated week of delivery' ie the week that contains the babys due date. You need to have clocked up the required amount of service at the work place by this particular week. It matters not if baby came early or late, that is the week they use to calculate entitlement.

v.rajput

Hi,

Honey pop, the "estimated week of delivery" is calculated by the company you work for or the midwife?

As before it looks like im out by about 9days!

honeypop

The midwife or hospital would have given your partner a MATB1 form with the due date of the baby on, then the week (starting on a Monday) that contains that date is the 'estimated week of delivery'. Not sure what else the official due date is given to you on but I know that form is one thing. The company then use this to work out the estomated week of delivery (EWD) which would be the same as worked out by anybody, it can only be worked out one way.

You would have had to provide proof of the EWD when applying for Paternity Leave before the baby was born, so your company could see when it was due and been able to work out if you had adequate service to qualify for this leave.

Annoying that you missed out by 9 days, but unfortunately there has to be a cut off point somewhere for most things. Even if baby had been born 2 weeks after the EWD and by then you had been working there long enough, you still wouldn't have qualified because they still go by the EWD not the actual date baby was born.

v.rajput

I was never asked to provide anything, like i say orginally i was told "you need to be with the company for a year" before you can apply for anything like that.

Thanks for all your help, i will get the wife to check with her employers and see if the Estimated date is anywhere on her discharge pack.

Im still 99.9% sure that ididnt qual, but i just am a bit peeved that my manager, has not consulted payroll correctly.

Thanks all

Coveredinbees!!!!

I'm a bit fuddled, how much money do you get when on paternity leave, I have been on the Directgov site and it tells me I'll get £117 a week is this right?

v.rajput

I though it was two weeks leave on full pay, im not sure seeing that i didint get to go!!lol

chrisbur

Statutory paternity pay is £117.18 per week or 90% of the qualifying average pay if this is less than £117.18. If an employer wants to pay more than these minimum figures then they can, but their repayments would be based on the £117.18 or 90% figures not on what they had chosen to pay.

The employee can take either one week off or two consecutive weeks off; but not two separate weeks.

The employer is not allowed to ask for evidence of when the baby is due, this is self certified by the employee on form SC3.