Shared Parental Leave when Mum resigns

Hazel67423

Afternoon all.

I am looking for clarification on shared parental leave if the mother resigns and works her notice during her maternity leave.

More specifically, I may have the opportunity to take a career making job in September. For my current employer I would be on maternity leave on mat leave and September would finish at week 12 of it. If I submit my resignation I understand that I would forfeit the remainder of my maternity entitlements from the date my contract ends, but would my husband be able to step in the week before my notice period was up and take over on shared leave? He would be off at the same time for 1 week and then be sole carer after I return to work. His company have already agreed it in principle.

My understanding is that as we have both been in continuous employment with the same employer for the 26 weeks ahead of the 15th week prior to the due date we qualify for shared parental leave, but I couldn't find anything specific on if one resigns, can the statutory entitlement be transferred to the other to complete.

Together we wouldn't actually be taking the full 52 weeks but only 24 of it with my husband adding on holiday and lieu days to the end.

Any advice welcome, I have emailed working families but am yet to receive a response, and have not been able to get through to maternity action.

Many thanks

tizerbelle

Yes, you can do what you are thinking about but with one caveat: Your husband can't start ShPL until you have curtailed your maternity leave. So if you want a week of both of you off at the same time, you will need to curtail your maternity leave at end of week 11 and move to ShPL yourself for that final week. Obviously you would not be entitled to anymore ShPL once with your new employer but your husband could have up to 40 weeks ShPL (52 weeks - 11 weeks maternity leave - your 1 week ShPL)

Hazel67423

Thank you Tizerbelle, and the curtailment notice would be to my employer with the 8 weeks notice before my husbands leave would start? I have only suggested we overlap to ensure that the entitlement continues but could he start his the day after mine, therefore me only submitting my notice and him submitting his formal request for ShPL?

Thank you again

Hazel67423

*resignation notice not curtailment notice is he started the day after mine ended.

tizerbelle

Sorry I'm not sure on that. Possibly yes but might cause more confusion unless you are specific in your resignation notice that you are also curtailing your maternity leave otherwise they may assume you want maternity to continue and they could pay it all en-bloc when you leave - which would mean no money/less leave for ShPl for your husband.

Hazel67423

Very good point. I will consider that is I do get the job and need to resign. Thank you, you have been very helpful.

Savvy_Sue

tizerbelle wrote: »

Sorry I'm not sure on that. Possibly yes but might cause more confusion unless you are specific in your resignation notice that you are also curtailing your maternity leave otherwise they may assume you want maternity to continue and they could pay it all en-bloc when you leave - which would mean no money/less leave for ShPl for your husband.

that is a good point, and it would probably also be helpful if your resignation letter spelled out that you are leaving in order to start new job on X date.

Learning all this from a colleague's resignation while on m/l - I had to phone our payroll company to check what I should do, and they were very clear that unless I had written notice that she was going to another job, I needed to pay the rest of her SMP!

Hazel67423

Thank you. That is good to know.
I would have assumed by providing notice to terminate a contract mid way through would automatically suggest that SMP would cease at that point, but it is def worth including that information to make sure all bases are covered. So my resignation will need to include standard notice to terminate my working contract, based on the receipt of a new job starting on xxxx date, and with that notice to curtail my mat leave to allow my husband to continue with it. I will need to complete the documents for it too and include them, as he will need to for work.
Thanks again all. You have been great