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Should I take cash in lieu of holiday whilst on Mat leave?

13 replies

cornflakegirl · 21/04/2009 11:16

Bit of background: I'm expecting my 2nd baby in the middle of August. Currently I work full-time and DH is a SAHD to our nearly 4yo DS. My current plan is to not start mat leave until my due date, but to take the week before off as holiday. I'm figuring that a desk job is probably much less tiring than full time with a preschooler, and it also makes sense financially. I'm currently planning to take 9-12 months as mat leave, during which time we're hoping DH can get temporary admin work. Finances will be tight as my company only pays SMP, and if DH has difficulty finding work, we'll have to rethink when I go back.

My company's mat policy says that holiday accrued but not taken before the start of mat leave will be paid early in the next calendar year, unless requested otherwise. I'm saving a lot of this year's holiday, so could get a decent payment if I take it as cash. My other option is to try to keep the holiday, and take it at the end of my mat leave (along with the leave I've accrued on AML). I can't see any real point to saving the holiday, but I'm not sure if there's anything I haven't thought of. Can anyone advise me, please?

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flowerybeanbag · 21/04/2009 11:19

You shouldn't take cash because it's against the law for your company to pay you cash in lieu of holiday, you must actually take your time off, not get cash instead.

You should take as much as possible before your maternity leave, and either take the rest tacked on to the end of your maternity leave, or 'come back' to work earlier than planned but be 'on holiday' instead, if that makes sense. So if you have 5 weeks to take, you could take them as soon as your SMP runs out, so you'd be on full pay for 5 weeks before you actually have to go into work.

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flowerybeanbag · 21/04/2009 11:23

unless you get more than the statutory basic 5.6 weeks holiday, in which case they could pay you in lieu of the extra if that's their policy.

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cornflakegirl · 21/04/2009 12:19

Flowery - thanks, hadn't thought of that. I get 25 days plus bank holidays. Although I don't know how bank holidays work whilst on mat leave - I assume I still don't get paid for them?

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flowerybeanbag · 21/04/2009 12:47

You get your bank holidays while on maternity leave, yes, although obviously you won't be able to take them at the 'right' time. You are now entitled to all your benefits during maternity leave, including all paid holiday - bank holidays aren't excluded from that ruling, so they should just be tacked on to your normal holiday entitlement and taken at another time.

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cornflakegirl · 21/04/2009 13:48

Brilliant! So I should be able to take up to 5 days as cash then?

I can't imagine I'll be able to afford to use the whole 12 months, so it feels like the choice is between being paid for 5 days in January (taking the cash) or being paid for 5 days in May or later (using the holiday at the end of mat leave). Which feels like a no-brainer - might as well have the money sooner rather than later. Does that make sense?

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer this Flowery - you are fab!

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flowerybeanbag · 21/04/2009 19:33

Be careful about receiving salary while you're on SMP - you can have up to 10 paid 'Keeping in Touch' days without jeopardising your SMP, so could count 5 days holiday as those if you want it paid while you're also getting SMP, but that will mean you will only have 5 KIT days you can actually use, if that makes sense.

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cornflakegirl · 21/04/2009 20:17

Does that mean that our HR people are talking out their bottoms by even putting this in our Mat policy?

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flowerybeanbag · 21/04/2009 20:27

Indeed. It has been known...

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georgimama · 21/04/2009 20:31

The only way to get cash for your accrued holiday is to quit your job. You'll have to take the holiday, I'm afraid.

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cornflakegirl · 22/04/2009 09:40

Thanks both!

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mrsjammi · 22/04/2009 09:42

This reply has been deleted

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Ceebee74 · 22/04/2009 09:48

Further to MrsJammi's suggestion, I used up my holidays by reducing my hours in the few weeks before I finished...so I was effectively doing 2-day weeks (rather than 4 days) for about 4 weeks before I finally finished at 37 weeks.

I found this really helpful as I was very big and very tired towards the end.

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cornflakegirl · 22/04/2009 11:38

Yeah, I'm really hoping that the end of this pregnancy will be fairly straightforward like last time (I worked till a week before with DS). I seem to do knackered all the way through my pregnancies, but thankfully DH is fantastic at picking up the slack.

I'm still not really sure how long I'm going to want to be off for. I was quite happy to go back after 7 months with DS, but expressing is a faff, so I'm thinking a bit longer this time could be good so that the baby needs fewer milk feeds. But I might go stir-crazy at home - who knows!