Maternity Leave Unpaid

crouchy1919

My wife has recently had to take the full 12 months maternity leave, with the last few months being unpaid obviously. I am still working  from home and technically we could both work from home but having 2 young children would have  made this impossible, what are our options to cover the loss of income? We have requested the mortgage holiday which has been accepted and also requested furlough which has been rejected unfortunately. Should we challenge this? The company has said they aren't currently looking to furlough any staff even though we have explained caring for kids is a reason to furlough but obviously this is their decision to make.
Thanks

bradders1983

 Challenge it with who? If they dont want to offer it you then that is that, nobody else can force them.

crouchy1919

No I agree, as I said in my post I understand it is their decision to make but wondered if anyone has experienced anything similar and explained that this is a reason for furlough and had any success. Anyway the main reason for the post was to see if there card any other options to boost income at this time?

BrassicWoman

Lots of employers are letting parents do flexible shifts from home to cover the sudden childcare needs. Both of you need to have that conversation, I think.

poppy12345

Your wife was on unpaid leave before this happened and you're now working from home, so financially things shouldn't be much different.

You can look at claiming Universal Credit by using a benefits calculator. If you're claiming tax credits then a claim for UC will end that claim. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

crouchy1919

poppy12345 said:

Your wife was on unpaid leave before this happened and you're now working from home, so financially things shouldn't be much different.

You can look at claiming Universal Credit by using a benefits calculator. If you're claiming tax credits then a claim for UC will end that claim.

Hi, not sure I follow how things should be no different? My wife got maternity pay for 9 months and we had planned for her to go back after 10 months, so 1 month unpaid but we had hoped she would have had an income for last month and this coming month but won't receive this now.

poppy12345

You said she was off work for 12 months, that means you were without her pay for more than 1 month. Anyway regardless, you can't force your employer to furlough you. Use the benefits calculator above.

gettingtheresometime

But is your wife technically off maternity leave? 

If the answer is yes, & she can work from home then can you work flexibly playing catch up when the children are asleep - not ideal I know but it's a workaround.

 

crouchy1919

Yeah sorry obviously didn't make it clear but she has just recently 'extended' her maternity to the full 12 months

LilElvis

She will have accrued holiday during her maternity leave so her employer may allow her to use that and therefore pay her for it.

sharpe106

Do you mean that she taken extra time of then originally planned? Rather than originally planning for the full year?

As has been put before if she can work from home surely she can work flexible for the next few weeks, not great but others are having far more issues.