Is this how shared parental leave works?

[Newtrick]

Hello,
How can you mix and match maternity/parental leave
If it helps its both women, is it dependent on who gives birth?

Could partner A take their period of maternity from their employer (full pay period then half pay plus smp period) then partner B do the same, (full pay period, halfpay plus smp period)? or would b automatically be put on SMP/unpaid?

For example if i had a baby today and i would get full pay till april, half pay till june, then smp til october then nothing till december. Could my partner then take leave in october and use the full pay bit of their employers package?

Only the one who gives birth is entitled to maternity pay. They would give up some of their time to allow the partner to take shared leave. Out of interest, will your partner be adopting the baby? There might be a difference with adoption leave.

Depends on the partners' employer's shared parental leave policy. The woman having the baby has to cut short her maternity leave and pay period to free up time for the other parent to take. The other parents employer may or may not offset the pay period that Partner A has had so may or may not offer full pay to Partner B.

My husband and I have just done this. I had my maternity leave, got my full pay period of 13 weeks then went onto SMP.

My husband then got his 13 weeks full pay entitlement then went onto 'SSP' which is basically maternity pay but for the other partner who hasn't given birth.

As I understand it you are entitled to one period of shared parental leave each (yours will be in addition to your mat leave, so you can end your mat leave and then later take your shared parental leave).

Double check your employer's policy on this though.

We did shared leave, I took the first six months and so I received full lay in line with my employers package. My husband also had the first six weeks on full pay. My husband then took five months leave when I went back to work, as this was six months after our daughter came home his leave was at the rate of pay he would receive after six months of leave which was the statutory rate so about £150 until that ran out (37 weeks I think).

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/

This gives more info

I have no idea how this works, but it is nice to see it being used by some. So few people seem to use this option.

I found this tool extremely helpful with figuring it all out - https://www.gov.uk/plan-shared-parental-leave-pay

It let's you pick the weeks off you want and sort out the split that's completely up to you.

It’s based on if both mum and partner meet the qualifying criteria as well. It also depends on the company policies not all companies top up pay so it could you only get ShPP pay of £156.66 PW (SSP is statutory Sick Pay) you get 39 weeks paid (£156.66 after 6 weeks) period for Maternity you can give up some of this pay for you partner to take SPL. By law mum must take two week’s maternity leave after the birth of the baby unless a warehouse type role then it’s 3 weeks. If you choose to start your mat leave early this will towards the 39 weeks. If for example you choose the take the whole year off with all the pay, you partner may only be able to take UNPAID leave. I work in payroll and we process loads (large company) and each SPL cases is unique.

I think you have misunderstood how it works.

There is entitlement to 52 weeks statutory leave and 39 weeks statutory pay. The mother has to have at least 2 weeks statutory maternity leave (SML) after giving birth. The other 50 weeks can be a mixture of SML and SShPL (Statutory Shared Parental Leave). However, the mother has to voluntarily give up their SML in order for them and their partner to get SShPL.

Pay- SMP and SShPP can also be shared and link to how the leave is taken. So if the mother takes SML they are paid SMP etc. If the mother voluntarily gives up SML they are also giving up SMP but they can get SShPP if they take SShPL.

SMP is 39 weeks in total - 6 weeks @ 90% of pay and 33 weeks @ £156.66 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower)www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay
SShPP is based on SMP www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/what-youll-get

The partner can also get 2 weeks Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay. This is often taken when the mother has the compulsory 2 weeks SML.

The sex of the mother’s partner is irrelevant.

The woman giving birth can also choose to stay on her enhanced pay rather than going onto shared parental pay. She then cuts short her maternity pay/leave period to create leave for the other parent.

Partner B will get whatever shared leave/pay that their employer offers but it will only be for the number of weeks/months that Partner A has forfeited. Partner Bs employer may offset any pay that Partner A has had so may be in the Statutory pay period or may even be unpaid.

It depends what each employer offers and what their T&Cs are

That’s really interesting, it’s very well used in the company I work for. Most people who have had children whilst I’ve worked there (5 years) have used it.

We did this last year with our leave
I think what you’re trying to say is can you get the paid bit of yours and then switch so your partner gets the paid but if theirs and run them consecutively.
it will be down to your partners employer.

my OH employer gives them full pay for 4 months on shared leave BUT similar to @Simonjt it runs from when baby is born and not from when they take the leave.

i took weeks 1-26 as maternity leave as that was my enhanced package and then I curtailed my maternity leave and my husband took shared leave from weeks 26-39. Even though that was his first big chunk of absence from his employer and we thought the policy was full pay (enchanted statutory), he only got statutory as the baby was 26w old which is when their package would go down to statutory anyway

it’s hard to explain 🙈 main advice is ask your partners employer in writing

Why should I give up my leave? If dad's / non birthing partners want longer leave let them fight for it.

Given most CEOs and MPs are men, and that we've have 2 recent male prime ministers become fathers during office, if men wanted extra time off... they'd have it

You don't have to if you don't want to, but for some of us it's good option. Personally I don't want to take a full year off as I don't want my career to take too big a hit, so having the option of my DH taking a few months off as well is a good thing.

Twizbe I think that's very short-sighted. Men who have taken it in my workplace have been much more involved in their children's care on an ongoing basis, which is good for them but also their partner. We did SPL and it gave my husband a good appreciation of what a day with a baby is, and they also have a really strong bond. When SPL was over we split childcare and sick days equally. He is very much the 50% parent years later. Part of that is due to who he is but SPL and those early months spent one on one with our child also deserves credit.

i imagine @Twizbe was pointing out the main grievance with shared parental leave as a policy

With SPL- men actually haven’t been awarded any additional paternity leave, they can only take the allowance allotted to the woman who has birthed the baby, may be exclusively breastfeeding the baby and is still recovering physically and mentally from carrying the baby

shared parental leave sounds like progressive policy but it isn’t, as it seems to imagine that babies just crack from brightly coloured eggs left by a stork, without consequence

the non-birthing partner should receive proper, funded parental leave rather than having to essentially steal it from woman’s allowance (which is usually pretty shite to begin with)

Really, I know no one who has taken it. I thought I remembered reading take up was low …. But I have only a vague recollection of reading that.

i think it’s great to have the option to share leave

no one is talking about people having to give up leave. It’s about people choosing to share leave and share time off with the baby.

I agree paternity leave and pay should be better.

Probably not exclusively breastfeeding the baby for a year though. I agree that a big part of maternity leave is to allow the woman’s body time to heal, recover, breastfeed if she wants to etc. But not everyone takes a full year for this, or needs a full year for this. I took 6 months and then went back to work. If this had been an option for us, it would have been amazing for my DH to be able to take some months after that to allow our baby longer at home and for him to have that full responsibility of care and bonding too.

Loads of dads are taking shared parental leave at my work now. Usually not as much as the woman - who as you say needs that time to recover from the birth as well as everything else - but they’re taking it. It’s great - hearing people discussing shifting work around because Mark or Dave is off on PL in the same way as if Emma or Samira is. People often expect it now. Dads taking time for childcare is a good thing to normalise.

@Whowhatwherewhenwhynow erm to share the leave the woman has to give the partner her leave. She cannot take the full 52 weeks if she does SPL.

It would be better if partners had their own 52 weeks leave

You need to check company policies.

Ours is quite clear that maternity leave is for the woman with a MATB1 form.

Paternity leave is for the father of the child.

Howeve, adoption leave is equally generous and is normally what same sex couples have used as it also has clauses about splitting time and 'sharing' the duration across baby's first year. It also doesn't affect the claim for maternity leave from the woman with the MATB1 (conscious that you'd both be the baby's mother in this scenario).

Definitely worth a chat with your respective HR departments and seeing how the policies would work depending on which if you presents the MATB1. Best of luck.

I took the statutory 2wks and then DH took 38wks as SPL.

Shared Parental Leave means that the birthing mother can share her entitlement to the statutory paid period. That can be taken consecutively or, I believe (but haven’t done it myself) concurrently.

If your employers pay enhanced maternity pay, it doesn’t naturally follow that they will offer enhanced statutory parental leave. Some do. Your partner/wife will need to check hers out.

Having done shared parental leave twice, and it’s predecessor (ie returning to work full or 0.8 fte at seven months with my husband taking 3-5 months each time) I can assure you that it is possible to do that and breast feed. It’s also been great for all of our home dynamics.

This might surprise you, but you can be a good 50/50 parent without it.

My DH just had the standard 2 weeks with both ours. I went back to work full time after DC1 and became a SAHP after D2.

He is a committed parent and partner. He shares the load. From what I've seen, he's more 50/50 than some of the dads I know who did take SPL. There's one I can think of who really seems to think his parenting job is done now he's back at work.

SPL was great for us, I only ever wanted to take 9 months, so DH took a month when I went back to work. It allowed me to settle back in without working about the baby settling into nursery, and meant that DH did the nursery settles which I think was a little easier on the baby. It also reset the Parent A and Parent B thing that naturally happens with maternity leave and breastfeeding.

We have the same employer, they put the other parent onto the enhanced maternity pay for the relevant weeks. So if I went back after 40 weeks, DH got the same pay as a woman on maternity leave for weeks 41-44 - which was nothing, but if I'd give straight back to work after two weeks he could've had a few months on full pay.

You'll need to talk to both employers to check their policies to make sure you do it in a way that's financially efficient (as well as choosing the arrangement that works best for your family).