Parental Leave

topaztiger1983

We are having a baby in February, and I was wondering about parental leave as someone told me I could possibly take 50 weeks leave, is this correct (my partner is unemployed and she has been for a long time)

marliepanda

I had a brief google and 18 weeks UNPAID parental leave came up.

Where are you getting 50?

You can split maternity allowances between parents, but as your partner doesn't have any entitlement to maternity pay from an employer I can't see how that will benefit you .

Tigsteroonie

I think the OP is talking about Shared Parental Leave (i.e. the new system of transferring Mat Leave to the partner rather than taking it yourself). I'm not sure how it works if the mother is actually unemployed - presumably she would have to sign on again and start looking for work?

topaztiger1983

Oh maybe the person who told me was wrong

Darksparkle

There is info on it here - https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay

TELLIT01

If you weren't working, or were working under 24 hrs / wk and earning less than about £114 per week, your partner could claim IS 11 weeks before the due date of the baby and for 15 weeks after. Giving up work to obtain this 'benefit' seems crazy to me but I used to see it often enough when I worked on IS.

topaztiger1983

Yh I see people do that too, but not for me

I have to give up work (temporarily, 6 months - 1 year) when my daughter is born anyway due to Social Services involvement, they say that my partner can't care for our daughter on her own