Adoption leave

[RoomForMore]

I'm hoping someone might be able to give me an answer on this. We have put DH down as primary adopter and I am secondary adopter. We did this because he earns considerably more than I do and his HR dept says the primary adopter gets 6 weeks adoption leave at 90% pay. I am planning on leaving paid employment when we get matched so it seemed to make sense for him to go as primary.
Now, DH isn't sure if his 6 weeks at 90% pay is based on me working. Does that make sense? So can he be the primary adopter, have this leave, if I'm a stay at home mum by then?

Yes, either adopter can be the primary adopter regardless of working status of either parent. However, if you are in employment you may want to do your sums as to which is more valuable. If you are employed then regardless of whether you are intending to return to work or not you will be entitled to 6 weeks at 90% of your salary and then statutory at £144 for the next 33 weeks. Depending on what your husband earns it may be more valuable you claiming the full amount of statutory than him just using 6 weeks full pay of it.

If after your calculations you decide that you would get more money in the long run by you taking it then he will be the secondary adopter and can take two weeks statutory paternity pay (some of this may be full pay) and then 4 weeks unpaid parental leave.

The above poster confused me, and I have already been through this! No offence to that poster!

First check the company adoption policy. Then check the company maternity policy. Are they the same, statutory, or is the maternity one a better more enhanced package?

If it is, you can challenge it to get them to be the same.

My husband did this, worked for a national company, took it to a tribunal, and won.

Rather than get the 6 weeks at 90% pay and then stat pay, he got 100% pay for 6 weeks, 50% pay for 4 months and then stat pay. Worth doing!

You or your DH are entitled to statutory adoption pay even if one of you isn't working, so yes, if you give up work he can still take that.

What the poster above said is also worth considering, if you are the higher earner it might be worth you taking the adoption leave.

Thank you both for your replies! We might ask if DH can take 6 weeks at 100% pay instead of 90%. If I'm not working am I entitled to any statutory pay?

Are you currently working? If you are currently employed and not self employed then you are entitled to statutory as I outlined in my previous post. If you are planning on resigning you would not until you have used up your statutory payments. If your husband is the primary adopter you would be entitled to two weeks parental leave at statutory pay as secondary adopter but only if you are in employment.

Repeating what others have said, only slightly differently in case it helps:

Just because you are planning on being a SAHM, doesn't mean you have to resign when matched.
Two reasons

1. Financial
2. What if intros fail for some reason

Take adoption leave, if they have any 'clawback' on money they give you then don't spend the extra. Resign at the end. If you are lucky like me they might ask for voluntary redundancies before you have to go back!

So you have 2 options:

1. You resign, your DH gets 6 weeks @ 90% but then returns to work because you need the money
2. DH takes 2 weeks paternity leave and supplements if you want longer with annual leave or unpaid. You go on adoption leave and get some income for 9 months.