can you take holiday before maternity?

[Candydreamer]

hi,

I will of course ask my own HR department but my meeting with them is not for a few weeks and I am curious in the meantime. i have a lot of holiday to take this year (around 30 days) and am due in November. I work from home so am envisioning staying until the end, but I am wondering, can I in theory save the 30 days and take them first. so for example, my baby is born on 22nd November, I take the month holiday from 21st November and then maternity leave starts 21st December (roughly) or does maternity leave have to start as soon as baby is born?

I am curious how it works as if I had booked 2 weeks holiday at the beginning of November for example and baby happened to come early, would my holiday be stopped and maternity leave immediately kick in? I am looking at this from a money point of view because of course the extra month holiday will be extremely beneficial!

thanks!

No.

You can take holiday before but as soon as baby is here maternity kicks in. A lot of places let you carry holiday over and stick it on the end of mat leave before you go back.

Normally you can take holiday before baby is born but the day they’re born maternity leave kicks in. You may be able to carry it over to the next year to use at the end but depends on their policy

Maternity has to start when baby is born. I had 25 days to take before baby was born so I started maternity leave on the Monday of the week she was due but finished up on holiday for 5 weeks ahead of that - so finished just before I was 35 weeks. It was a long time but it was nice to have some time to myself pre baby and meant that my pay lasted longer (on SML). I’ve also tacked some holiday (accumulated during ML) on to the end of maternity leave so just about to go back after 14 months off!

If you’re not meeting HR for a few weeks and it then transpires there isn’t a carry forward arrangement you might end up in the position where it’s impossible to use up your holiday. I would try and establish the rules now - if you do have to use in this annual leave year you might want to take some whilst weather has potential to be good at least.

It’s the day after the baby is born.
I had my DD at 31+2 (Wednesday) and my maternity leave started on the Thursday.

As pp said maternity kicks in as soon as the baby is born. I booked holiday up to my due date with both DC, and both came a week early. In each case my employer (public sector) switched me to mat leave the day I gave birth, then gave me the untaken week of holiday back to put on the end of my mat leave. Not sure if all employers do that though.

By law, maternity leave must start no later than the day you give birth.

What you do with your annual leave allowance before you give birth is up to you (and possibly your HR department's policy).

Ill use myself as an example as I'm leaving to have my second child soon:
I've booked a week of annual leave before my due date and have requested that my statutory maternity leave starts on my due date immediately after my annual leave (but I know the date my maternity leave commences will change if I give birth early).

You could have some holiday before maternity leave and maybe carry some forward to take afterwards. Depends on your employer as to how much you could take beforehand

If you gave birth while on annual leave you would stop annual leave and start maternity leave

My work (NHS) will only let me take the proportion
Of annual leave that is accrued before I want to go
Off e.g. our leave runs from April and I am on maternity from November so can only take 7/12 months worth before (58%) and the rest is carried over.

ah okay, thanks! Looks like I will be having to take most of november as holiday then! I dont think I will be able to fit in any of the time before then as we have just gone down 2 people on our team so holiday cover is going to be tough the next couple of months!

I would also ask how much they will let you carry over to the end. If they particularly need you to be around in November, they may extend your allowance to carry over to next year, meaning you can extend your mat leave on the other side. It may be to their advantage to do this so worth asking if it's something they would consider.

I took holiday before my second was born but she came a week early so my maternity pay kicked in and then i tagged it on the other end instead.

If they let you carry it over it might mean pay for you at the end of your leave? Very handy for nursery fees!

A lot of places will let you tag it on to the end of your mat leave if you can’t take it before. Especially if you can’t use it before due to staffing.

This was one of the awesome things about having a planned csec. I took just over a week's leave before, maternity leave started the day of my section, and I also added some leave onto the end of my maternity leave. Just over a year off iirc.

I carried mine over to the next year and I am taking it as a month off before I go back to work. A nice big pay packet before I start work (and go down to part time hours!)

My office let me stick all my leave at the end of maternity. It worked perfectly as I welcomed the full pay after statutory May pay 😊 Maybe explore if they will let you do that.

I wasn't allowed to carry over. All holiday for the holiday year I was giving birth in (as I wasn't going back before that holiday year ended) had to be taken before I finished. I had a fair amount of holiday, so well over a month off before each baby came.

Ask if they will let you carry it over into next year. I know my work do. Don't forget, you also accrue bank holiday while on maternity.

Alternatively, enjoy a nice month off before you have the baby!