Shared Parental Leave question

Justwe03

Hi all,

I had a look at gov.uk guidance about SPL but am still a little confused. Can both parents be off at the same time each getting the £138 a week for a while?

i.e. Mum takes the first 6 months off and Dad the first 3 months alongside Mum which uses the full 9 month paid entitlement. Or do they have swap in and out so only one parent is off?

Mum and Dad is totally interchangeable in that situation btw, Although I believe Mum has to take 4/6 weeks off after birth?

My boyfriend would like a child of his own one day, He will be an absolutely incredible Father. I wouldn't want to be at home for more than 6 months (I only work part time at the moment and will be in further study for another 3 years at least) and I would prefer to budget to have him hands on at home for those early months, If it is possible!

sweetilemon

I didn't think you could but apparently you can -

http://www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/

It would be a good idea, 2 weeks paternity is no where near enough!

P.S I thought "of course I'll go back to work, how else would I pay the mortgage and bills!?" Then when my precious baby girl arrived I thought "oh no...I never wanna work again! I'll survive somehow or at least reduced hours". Never underestimate how much a beautiful baby will change your life.

chanie

Only one parent can receive pay, even if both parents are off at the same time.

Jinx

I think to share the parental leave the mother has to end her maternity leave so depending on your contract it might be wise to check which works out better financially. And the parental leave requests have to be submitted to certain timelines as well I think.


You would get a more complete response on the employment board where there are some HR experts

picklekin

I'm pretty sure you can both do it together. What you need to do is give notice to end maternity leave (or adoption leave) then SPL starts, you can both take SPL at the same time, however between you the leave can only be a maximum of 52 weeks, so if you BOTH do 4 weeks together then you can take 48 weeks total.

Black_Ribboner

You can take it together. Mum has to take maternity leave for at least 2 weeks - Dad can take this time as paternity leave. Then there are 50 weeks left that can be shared between you, 37 of which are paid.

Those weeks can be shared any way you want and both parents can be paid at the same time, as long as the combined total of paid shared parental leave weeks doesn't exceed 37.

Our baby was born In March and I'm taking 24 weeks shared parental leave (after my 2 weeks maternity). My husband took 8 weeks at the beginning to spend with us and will take a further 5 weeks when I return to work, making up the full time between us. Due to our employers' policies, I received full pay for all 26 weeks while my husband has and will have only statutory pay. But we were paid at the same time, so it's definitely possible