How much mat leave did you take

[Babydust00]

Not yet TTC but planning ahead thinking of finances and the likes

We aren’t huge earners, household combined income is just under 4k a month

I was wondering how much maternity leave people usually take? I’ve seen to take the maximum time possible. I know I have some time to decide yet but obviously it’s most people’s ideal to take the whole year. I can’t see how we could afford the 3 months unpaid- on paper we could, but it would feel like a huge drop. On the other hand maybe keeping in touch days and universal credit might balance it all out.

You mention universial credit. Can I ask what you think you might be entitled to? I'm currently on month 12 of mat leave on zero pay and I'm not entitled to a thing other than child.benefit.

I took 14 months off with both. I used the year and my annual leave. The 3 months unpaid we weee quite lucky my partner earns good money but we just used the credit card for the last month. I doubt you’ll get UC if your combined income is 40k they won’t give you it on Mat leave

I milked the system a bit... I had 2 jobs, one ft and one that was just a day a week. I worked additional hours during the qualifying period that is used to calculate mat pay amounts to ensure I was over the NI threshold and qualified for mat pay from both jobs. I also sold all the company shares I had been given during the qualifying period and as they were taxable they counted as normal income for mat pay calculations for that 6 weeks at 90% bit at the start. Used the extra money paid at yhe start to fund additional time off during the unpaid bit at the end.

6 months on full pay. It was hard going back after but bloody glad I did

My work offered 6 months paid, 3 months stat 3 months unpaid. I worked out what we spent per month on bills. Then worked out what the 3 month statutory pay was per month and what needed to be topped up to cover bills etc. saved the money up. Didn’t take my husbands salary into consideration just bill complete amount. Then when the time came, husbands salary was the extra as the bills were covered by what we saved. In total I ended up with almost 14 months off due to accrued annual leave after the mat leave. If you are in a position to start saving as much as you can before the baby then do it, particularly if you aren’t pregnant yet, you’ll have more time.

Dc 1 - 9 months (6 months full, 3 months part pay, equally spread over 9 months) then I used accrued AL to take 2 days AL a week for 16 weeks.

Dc2 - 14 months in total. 6 months full, 3 months part, 3 months unpaid, again, equally spread. 2 months AL. Went back part time.

a year for my first dc

It is definitely worth saving before you have a child to help you through the maternity leave and the early childcare which is so expensive.

If you can obviously!

I took 12 months with one and 12 months followed by 4 months career break with the other.

We earn £3700 combined take home pay.
Iv had 2 children and Iv taken 13 months off both times. The last month was annual leave. Month 10,11,12 was zero pay but we made it work, it was important to me to spend this time off as I certainly won't be doing it again 🤣.

I’m currently off on mat leave, started at the beginning of December 2022. I’m not going back until the beginning of January next year 2024, so I’ll have had a full 13 months off in total. I get a full 12 months paid in full though, so didn’t need to worry about money or saving…. Which is lucky as baby was completely unplanned.
Your package sounds good, but I’d definitely get ahead and start saving as much as you can now. Babies are expensive and the costs of all the stuff you need for newborns, then as they grow soon adds up, plus there’s childcare to factor in. It does sound like you have more support than most with childcare too so you should be okay.

A year with both. I only got MA both times (first I was SE, second I was already pregnant when I joined company) so it was a struggle sometimes but we managed. Glad I took the year, wouldn't have wanted to be off any longer.

I only had SMP so whole year was not an option for me. Also a year seemed a bit much in role I was in at the time. I took 4 months on first and 6 months on second. It was enough for me but my
mum had recently retired and was very keen to look after DC so didn’t have to worry about crèche. I also went back part time (contracted 4 days but took some holidays initially to ease back in at 3 days). Everyone is different, but I would always choose an earlier return but long term reduction on hours if possible so can have at least some time with them at all stages, not just baby stage.

Please don’t rely on these hours . Child care providers won’t be able to continue just on the free hours so I imagine everything else will go up . When my youngest went and had her 30 free hours we were still paying 300 per month . My best friend has a child now who goes the same amount as my youngest did and is paying 750 . You’ll most likely find they will charge for all snacks/drinks/ nappy/ milk and will also say you can only have the free hours if you pay for a day as well . A lot of the nurseries by me already do that

Expecting baby in January :) taking 9 months - 6 months full pay, 3 month’s statutory

I am the higher earner and we can’t afford 3 months of me with no money.

I finished end of July at 31 weeks and am not going back until October next year thank GOD 😂
I’m NHS so I took 5 weeks annual leave (I was off sick for my last week) have opted to split my payments equally over the 12 months (which payroll will undoubtedly royally mess up as they’ve already lost my mat paperwork twice) and then taken 5 weeks of next years annual leave on the end.

8 years until they were both at school! Saw no point in paying someone else to look after them which would have meant I'd be working for less than nothing.

I took two weeks' holiday mid-May, and then started maternity leave 1 June with an expected due date of 1 July. I really wanted the time to just do NOTHING, to rest, to lay in bed all day, to go out on a whim, it felt a bit like 'This is the last time in a long time you get to do this!'. DD then ended up being two weeks late!

I returned to work on a staggered return a year later and used some of my accrued holiday to come back part time. This then allowed DD a staggered start to nursery to settle in, for us both to get used to the new normal.

I found the best thing to do was a monthly budget - ask payroll to send you your pay for each month on maternity. That way I could see the starter months where I could still save money to then offset the months where the pay decreased down.

Currently on mat leave- due to end in 3 weeks and go back to work 4 days a week. My twins will be 9 months when I go back. I’ve been on stat mat pay for 3 months, we saved to top it up to be like my usual wage.

I’d say take as long as you can afford, it goes far too fast.

good luck!

The 3 months unpaid actually saves me £1200 a month as that's the cost of my monthly childcare.

(How I see it anyway)
You can also pick up self employed income to supplement which can help.

Tbh it depends how big the company is and how well off they are financially. Some companies can’t afford to offer full pay, imagine if you had employees who kept getting pregnant

Not to mention having to pay someone else to do your role for six months too

I’m self employed so don’t get any maternity pay, I was a high earner at £250k and the sole income as my husband has a start up. Just started maternity leave so our household income has dropped to zero but our expenses are through the roof as everything was built around my income. I’m taking 5 months off, then going back 1 or 2 days a week.
Working for big companies certainly has its advantage.

Probably because you can’t give birth to a three year old.