Maternity leave/ holiday question

startingout2016

I want to start my maternity leave a month before my due date as I have a stressful job with long hours.

It doesnt seem to make any difference as to if I start my maternity leave a month early and use my holiday at the end or if i use my holiday to begin with and then take maternity leave.

At least if I take my holiday first I have more money at the beginning, which is when it will be most helpful to me as I will need to budget for baby essentials.

glentoran99

startingout2016 wrote: »

I want to start my maternity leave a month before my due date as I have a stressful job with long hours.

It doesnt seem to make any difference as to if I start my maternity leave a month early and use my holiday at the end or if i use my holiday to begin with and then take maternity leave.

At least if I take my holiday first I have more money at the beginning, which is when it will be most helpful to me as I will need to budget for baby essentials.

I would have taken the opposite view that it would be better at the end when you haven't had a decent pay in a while

penguingirl

I am also taking 4 weeks of leave before my due date, and starting my maternity leave on my due date. In my case it is to be able to show my employer I am making some effort to not carry over all my leave. Also it pushes back when my pay drops. But in reality it doesn't make that much difference whether you take it before/after.

LilElvis

The added complication is that if the baby comes earlier than the date maternity leave was due to commence it will automatically trigger the start of maternity leave.

onlyroz

I also would say it's better to take the holiday after the maternity leave - mainly because you can never be certain when the baby will arrive.

penguingirl

Yep my work are aware that my planned leave prior is tentative. But my managers seem fine with it. I'm hoping to have the option to take some of my leave after as a sort of grades return, but we'll see!

gettingtheresometime

I'd be very surprised if they let you take all of 2017/18 holidays in one fell swoop at the beginning of the holiday year.

What if you decided not to return to work for example...you'd have had holidays that you've been paid for and they can't reclaim any overpayments from you.

penguingirl

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if they let you take all of 2017/18 holidays in one fell swoop at the beginning of the holiday year.

What if you decided not to return to work for example...you'd have had holidays that you've been paid for and they can't reclaim any overpayments from you.

The difficulty I have is that I plan to take 12 months mat leave so it is the only time within my leave year that I can take any, and they are keen I limit how much I carry over. And in my organisation when you leave your pay is adjusted according to what annual leave you have taken. If you decide not to return to work it is a payroll/hr hassle anyway as they will reclaim some of your maternity pay so your be likely to be sent an invoice for overpayment.

startingout2016

i am also not allowed to carry holiday over and they dont pay for holiday not taken.
So i need to take it at the beginning or i could potentially lose it

onlyroz

Have you asked about carrying over leave? I was given a special exemption to carry over 10 days leave when I went on mat leave with my daughter. Normally they would only allow 5 days which had to be used before the end of march.