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?

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.

Same for us except that DH took 4 months.

I am sorry that some women are not physically recovered from birth at that point but the large majority are - I was absolutely fine at that point.

I am also still breastfeeding - DS is 3, he has never had a bottle, just fed morning and night when I went back to work which isn't unusual for a 9 month old.

Yes both of mine were ebf bottle refusers and it was fine.

We have done it twice now as its what works for us as a family financially and I was ready to ho back to work. There are many ways to do it so would read into it quite a bit not all employers understand it either so it's worth checking both your works get it!

I continued to bf well past my DS1 was at nursery til nearly 2 and still feeding DS2 as we swapped at 9 months he feeds when we are together.

For our family it has worked brilliantly and with accrued annual leave and bh we have managed 6 weeks off both times as a family.

Is this how it works? My employer doesn’t offer anything over Stat (shocking!) but my husband’s package is 6 months full pay. So we were planning on me taking 6 months SMP, going back to work then husband starting shared parental leave on his full pay. Baby will be 6 months old (maybe more as I’ll likely tag Annual leave on to the end of my Mat leave). Does this mean his pay won’t be his full rate because I’ll have already been off for 6 months (on SMP)? Doesn’t seem logical. Thanks for any advice, finding this all a minefield!!

Depends what his company specifies about when he has to take the leave. If you take 6 months leave and pay then you will only have freed up 6 months leave and 3 months pay as maternity pay only covers 9 months

@Janch13 it's unlikely that you can do first 6 months then your DH take the next 6 months at full pay as usually it tapers off. Generally most places mirror the mat policy for pay so he would do well to read it but it depends on his work and their policy.

@Janch13 I'd would be complaining to your company about some blatant sex discrimination there.

Women (the people who give birth) only get stat pay but the men (who don't) get full pay? How is that fair?

Are they not likely to have different employers?

@dementedpixie I don’t get any pay, just SMP. So I’d be off for 6 months on SMP then DH takes ShPL at his full rate for remaining 6 months. Does this still apply? We are waiting to hear from DH’s HR but he thinks he read somewhere (such as employee handbook) that his leave had to be taken within baby’s first 12 months.

It really depends on your employer’s policy and your partner’s employer policy. I took 6 months and averaged my occupational pay over that time. DH is now on his 6 months and he gets his 10 weeks occupational pay, then he will go to statutory then will move to unpaid for the last 3 months, the same as I would have.

@Twizbe sorry if unclear, we do have different employers. Both global companies though so it’s pretty shocking mine offers nothing more than the statutory! Only went to work there because I thought it would have a good package (and except for Maternity is does!)

You do have to take it all in the first 12 months, but it doesn't have to be consecutive and you can return to work in between periods of leave. You can also take the leave at the same time as each other, but remember that only one of you can be paid for it.

You need to check the policies of your employers - but generally once you are on SpL it's one period of leave and one payment between you. It's worth working through the options as there are loads of creative ways to use it. We've done it 3 times in 3 different ways and it's been amazing.

You have up to 50 weeks leave and 37 weeks pay you can share so if you take 6 months pay you won't have 6 months pay left to share.

It does also depend on his employers T&Cs

@BugsyDrakeTableScape Thanks for the response. So if I get SMP then he wouldn’t he get his full rate? His employer offers full pay whereas mine offers nothing.

How did you suss out how to use it? I’m finding it really hard to understand.

This is my 2nd baby and we didn’t make use of his package last time and I just took the full 12 months off, 9 months on SMP and the remainder unpaid. We’d like to make use of it this time but doesn’t really provide any value if it’s not his full rate (ie if I take 6 months before him, as some PPs are suggesting)

@dementedpixie I understand what you are saying (I think) but is that not the stat shared parental pay? His employer offers all employees 6 months full pay. So we are not sharing. I’m on stat, he is on an enhanced package.

We are not looking to share Stat parental pay. That’s no better to us than me taking 9 months off on Stat maternity pay.

In order for him to have his 6 months leave and pay would mean you'd need to forfeit 6 months of your paid leave as its your paid leave he is sharing with you.

Leave and pay are separate components and you are cutting short your leave/pay so he can have the leave/pay instead. You have 50 weeks leave and 37 weeks pay to share.

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

@Janch13 if you work through the gov.uk pages there is a calculator you can use that helps you plan. www.plan-shared-parental-leave.service.gov.uk/planner

Firstly you have to take SML and SMP ( statutory maternity leave and pay) until 2 weeks after birth. Your DH can take his 2 weeks SPL and SPP (Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay).

At that point you can decide to give up your maternity leave and opt for Shared Parental Leave, how ever many weeks remaining of your SML and SMP are converted to SShPL and SShPP ( shared parental leave and pay).

For example if you took 4 weeks SML and SMP:
52 weeks SML - 4 weeks = 48 weeks SShPL
39 weeks SMP - 4 weeks = 35 weeks SShPP

if you want DH to have 26 weeks full pay you have to give him 26 weeks SShPL and 26 weeks SShPP this leaves you with
48 weeks SShPL - 26 weeks = 22 weeks SShPL
35 weeks SShPP - 26 weeks = 9 weeks SShPP

So you would get 13 weeks SMP/SShPP and 26 weeks SPL/SShPP. These can be taken at the same time. You can vary the number of weeks you decide DH should have.

Note: As the mother you have to voluntarily opt to end maternity leave and to move to shared parental leave.

Thanks for this breakdown @Princessglittery this is really useful. Can you advise on what this means for DH‘S pay? We’d only take ShPL to make use of his company package (6 months at full pay), not for him to get time on on ShPP. Thanks a lot! x

It depends on the T&Cs of his employer. E.g. Whether they specify when he needs to take the leave and whether any paid leave you have offsets the paid leave he gets.

For him to get 26 weeks leave and pay means you reduce your leave by 26 weeks and your pay period by 26 weeks - this leaves you with 50 - 26 weeks leave = 24 weeks leave and 37 - 26 weeks pay = 11 weeks pay (you have 50 weeks leave and 37 weeks pay to share as you legally need to take 2 weeks yourself).

He'll need to talk to his employer. Some firms are offering enhanced paternity now, I think it was Aviva that was offering dads (and female non birthing parents) six months paid regardless of what the mother was doing.

Occupational pay is a contractual benefit and so your DH needs to check his employers policy or with HR.

Normally employers build benefits on top of statutory benefits. For example to get OShPL and OShPP your DH would first have to be eligible for and claim SShPL and SShPP and his employer then “tops this up” to full pay. It will be rare for this not to apply.

It is highly likely this is how your DH’s employer pays OShPP and that he will not be eligible for OShPP if he is not receiving SShPP. The reason your DH may get 6 months full pay is because his employer has chosen to mirror the OMP and OAP they offer employees.

Your employer doesn’t pay OMP so you also don’t get OShPP.