Adoption Pay

wonderwoman29

I posted this over in Family and was told that there are some very knowledgeable people on this board so here I am!
My husband and I are in the process of being approved as adoptive parents. He works full time (been in the company for over 12 months) and I'm at home, a carer for our disabled daughter. The adoption agency has told us that because I won't be taking any maternity/adoption leave, as I'm home anyway, that my husband would be entitled to take this instead. We've read his workplace policy on adoption leave and to be honest, it wasn't very straight forward and certainly not easy to understand. Could anyone advise what we would be entitled to? Or is it a case of it depends on what my husband's company offers? They have implied that because I'm home that he isn't entitled to anything other than the standard 2 weeks paternity. Is this right? Or could he take more time? 
Many thanks in advance for any advice!

BrassicWoman

Full details here
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave

wonderwoman29

BrassicWoman said:

Full details here
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave

I've been on here and I think I'm even more confused. According to this, not only do we both have to be considered employee's, but we both have to work for the same company?

theoretica

I think you might be getting confused about shared parental leave which doesn't apply, because you are not in employment.  You need to look at statutory adoption leave (and pay) as the link BrassicWoman gave.

Marcon

wonderwoman29 said:

I posted this over in Family and was told that there are some very knowledgeable people on this board so here I am!
My husband and I are in the process of being approved as adoptive parents. He works full time (been in the company for over 12 months) and I'm at home, a carer for our disabled daughter. The adoption agency has told us that because I won't be taking any maternity/adoption leave, as I'm home anyway, that my husband would be entitled to take this instead. We've read his workplace policy on adoption leave and to be honest, it wasn't very straight forward and certainly not easy to understand. Could anyone advise what we would be entitled to? Or is it a case of it depends on what my husband's company offers? They have implied that because I'm home that he isn't entitled to anything other than the standard 2 weeks paternity. Is this right? Or could he take more time? 
Many thanks in advance for any advice!

Go back to the agency and send them a copy of your husband's workplace policy on adoption leave and ask them for their views.

TBagpuss

wonderwoman29 said:

BrassicWoman said:

Full details here
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave

I've been on here and I think I'm even more confused. According to this, not only do we both have to be considered employee's, but we both have to work for the same company?

I think you are looking at Shared Parental Leave, and even there, it doesn't mean that you both have to be employed by the same employer as each other, it means that the person taking the leave has to have been employed by the same employer for the 26 weeks before the child is placed and during the whole of the time they are claiming the leave - e.g. if your husband had only just started a new job, he would not be eligible unless he'd been in that job for 6 months by the time the child is placed with you, and equally, if he left his current job to move to a different employer, after he had started taking the parental leave, he couldn't move the untaken leave to a new  employer. 

In terms of Adoption leave, he should be able to claim this. he will have to give his employer notice that he wants to take the leave  (see https://www.acas.org.uk/your-adoption-leave-pay-and-other-rights/telling-your-employer-youre-adopting-or-fostering-to-adopt) he will also need to give them proof if they ask for it (a letter from the adoption agency should be sufficient proof) 
He will then be entitled to 6 weeks at 90% of his normal pay, then £151 a week or 90% of normal pay, whichever is lower, for up to a further 33 weeks.

His employers can't offer less than this, but their policies may mean that they offer more.

If you post the wording of his company policy (removing any company name or other identifying information0 then people here can see if it does offer any more.

wonderwoman29

All sorted, he's getting the full 12 months and they've been really generous with the package. Thanks to everyone for their advice and help.