Maternity/Adoption Statutory Leave

[maternityleavequestion]

I'm hoping to start the adoption process shortly as a single adopter.
But I need to make sure I can afford the process, particularly the year out of work.
I currently work full-time, but with 2 part-time jobs (both approx 0.75 pr) which don't pay a very good salary...but as I work much more than traditional 39 hour week I have a fairly good overall salary (£30k +). I have a manageable mortgage.
The 2 companies I work at are very small and offer no additional benefits, so therefore I assume I can only get statutory adoption pay?
How does this work, when I have 2 different jobs? Anyone able to tell me in simple terms what adoption allowance I might receive in total for the year I will not work to help the child settle in?
Do I have to return to both jobs afterwards to avoid paying back the allowance?
This is possible with one job which is local and family friendly hours, but not with the other job as it's the opposite - although my boss there is understanding and might offer me a solution with flexi-hours, but ideally I wouldn't return to this job, as I would probably work PT locally for the time the child was still at school.
Anyone able to shed some light?
The adoption agency aren't very good at these sort of questions! Plus I'm not in the process yet because I'm trying to see if it's actually financially possible first before officially starting the application.

As far as I'm aware you'll only get statutory pay for your main job so it'll be 90% of that one for the first 6 weeks then I think it's about £140.00 a week after that with the final 3 months being unpaid. You don't have to pay back your statutory entitlement should you choose not to return to work. Depending on the placing authority and the needs of the child placed, I know of instances of the authority granting a payment to allow a parent to take the full year off but it's not guaranteed. You'd also be entitled to child benefit at £20 a week. I have no idea where you stand with tax credits and whether you can claim them whilst on leave or if they only kick in once you return to work.

Hope this helps a bit.

Adoption allowance is different to statutory maternity or adoption pay. Maternity/adoption is paid at the rate noted above and your employer can choose to offer an enhanced payment during adoption or maternity leave if they wish - its the enhanced pay that needs to be paid back to your employer if you don’t return and their policy should be clear about qualifying periods etc.

Adoption allowance us paid by the placing authority and usually has qualifying criteria such as adopting a sibling pair, hard to place children or placing children out of their local area. It’s usually means tested in some way and is generally (in my experience) awarded for the life of the child. Each local authority will have their own way of applying the criteria and my understanding is that it’s fairly unusual to be offered adoption allowance.

In some circumstances the local authority might help you with finances to cover your adoption leave but my thinking is that if you started the adoption process in the hope or expectation that they’d do this, it might impact your assessment because they’d expect you to be able to financially support any children which were placed.

In my case the adoption allowance came as a surprise after matching panel, it had never been discussed and we certainly didn’t expect it. It’s a proportion of the fostering allowance and while it doesn’t equate to my full time salary, it’s supported me to reduce my working hours etc. It’s quite unusual now for a local authority to commit to an adoption allowance up front though so you’d be wise to look at how you can support yourself any any children as you head into the process.

Jelly sorry I didn't mean to use the work allowance in my post.
I will not be depending on getting an allowance post-adoption.
I was just trying to ask about adoption pay/leave from work.

Thanks ifchocolate that clarifies things a bit.
As usual I still manage to screw myself over (have always been self-employed and not entitled to anything, which luckily I've never needed touch wood) by not having a full-time employed job, even though I work longer hours than most employed people!

I think it’s worth questioning though because the system does feel a bit biased towards folk in full time work with generous staff benefits. If you were pregnant you’d just work out how you’d cover it all and get by, in adoption you need those bits in order long before a child is even on the horizon which can’t help but put people off even when, as in our case, a fairly reasonable adoption allowance was available.

If they’d just be up front about what you can expect instead of always punting the idea that adopters need to be self sufficient.

Jelly I thought that adoption allowance was so rare, and only available for very difficult to place children?
If I knew I could get some adoption allowance going forward that would help, at the moment I'm not sure I can afford to be a single adopter because money would be quite tight and I'm not really used to living like that...it makes me uncomfortable that I might not be able to have much of a buffer, nor the ability to work my way out of trouble as I would need to be very available for the child (no parents/family around) so could only work reduced hours for a number of years.

It depends on where you are but in Scotland there are clear criteria where the must offer an adoption allowance - means tested often but still... Here the criteria includes sibling groups, hard to place children (in our case because both children were 4 and 6 so considered old for adoption) or if the placement is at a distance and there’s a chance contact might be needed in the placement area. Notice none of those reflect the needs of the child particularly.

In terms of hard to place, there are lots of factors that might make a child hard to place, but not necessarily hard to parent.

My sense is if you ask outright they’ll always say no, when in fact some allowances are available including money for setting up your home to accommodate children, legal fees, intros etc. Get through the approval process and matching then ask about every single thing. You’ll be surprised.

I also work part time across two jobs. One job would give enhanced adoption pay and the other statutory adoption pay. As far as I can figure out online, I would be entitled to adoption pay from both jobs. I hope I'm correct in thinking this...

@maternityleavequestion I'm a single adopter, finances can be very tricky to sort out.
To be honest I think ultimately it comes down to how badly you want it and what you are prepared to sacrifice, change or compromise on so you can make it happen.
For me it was the job I sacrificed. I left a much loved job and went back into the civil service - it was a purely financial decision, higher salary, very generous adoption pay, flexible working.It took me two years to get a job in the right place. It's not my job of choice but it put me in the right place to adoption
Start looking at your outgoings and lifestyle very carefully. If you have a mortgage can you switch to reduce your outgoings. Make sure you are on the cheapest deals for everything.
Think carefully about the age of the child you want to adopt. Having a school age child will reduce your need for childcare and your outgoings.
I'm a bit confused about your employment situation - your first post implies you are employed but later posts that you are self employed - whichever it is can you make changes to put yourself in a better position even if that takes time.
Don't forget you may be entitled to benefits- I'm not up to speed with Universal Credit but you should look into it. You should also get child benefit.
It's tough but can be worked out - lots of us do it !

You can get statutory maternity pay from two jobs so I suspect it is the same for statutory adoption pay.

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/rights-for-parents-with-more-than-one-job/

You have to satisfy the criteria for each job.

@jellycatspyjamas can I ask how you found about it? Our social worker has told us to look in to it but I know is the LA who decide if we get it so I've no idea who to speak to as my first call would have been to our SW. We're in Scotland as well.

The statutory guidance is here

www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-looked-children-scotland-regulations-2009-adoption-children-scotland-act-2007/pages/23/

And outlines the circumstances where adoption allowance should be considered - I’d use that as your starting point for discussion, the associated legislation is worth a look too. It’s also much easier if you’re placing out of area, oddly enough local authorities are happy to tell you what other local authorities should be paying. Feel free to pop me a message if you’d like more info.

@MiniMum97

As I don't get enhanced Maternity pay from either of my PAYE jobs do you know if i can get 2 lots of SMP? (I fulfil the qualifying criterion for both jobs).
If you don't have a HR department (very, very small companies) who do I ask about this? Is it HMRC?

Thanks

@maternityleavequestion see the webpage I have linked to above. You can get SMP for two jobs if you satisfy the criteria. I would just show this webpage to whoever deals with this at your work. If they refuse you can then contact HMRC statutory puts team for further help.