Please help me understand Shared parental leave and pay

[CurryandSnuggle]

Hi guys, sorry I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this but I'm really struggling to understand shared parental leave and how the pay works. This didn't exist when I had my first child.

I want to take 8 months maternity leave whilst during the first 4 months DH would take shared parental leave with me. I have read on various charity websites such as maternity action that it is possible for me to be on maternity leave at same time as DH takes shared parental leave. But I'm confused as lots of websites state that for me to create shared parental leave I need to end my maternity leave. How can that be the case if I'm supposedly able to remain on maternity leave while DH takes SPL? If I don't have to end my maternity leave, how do I create leave for DH and how do we legally request it? I know with my first born I had to fill out a MATb1 form, is there a similar form we need to use for the SPL?

I also want to understand how it affects pay if we're both off at the same time. The reason I want mat leave for myself is so I can keep my maternity rights, but also in my contract my employer does full pay for the first 3 months, half pay for the next 3 months and then SMP from 6-9 months. I think I would have to give this up if I was also registered as SPL rather than maternity.

I'm assuming if I'm getting paid then DH would be unpaid. Is this right?

Thank you

Hello! It can be confusing but you do have to stop your mat leave, and then you both go on SPL. Your company (and his) should have a policy which states any additional pay you would get on SPL (if yours doesn't I'd clarify with them as you may get the same pay, although probably unlikely). You can't end your mat leave until after the first two weeks after birth as this is a legal requirement. Hope this helps! If in doubt I'd speak to your HR department :)

You can actually stay on mat leave if you're only taking one single block of leave - you'd need to switch over onto SPL yourself if you were planning on swapping back and forth between you over several blocks of leave but it doesn't sound like that's your plan, so if you're only taking a single block then you can stay on mat leave and still create SPL for your husband.

Maternity action have a thorough page on it here but the shortest version I can manage is:

You give binding notice to your employer that you're returning to work after 8 months, thus curtailing your maternity leave and creating 4 months' SPL which your husband can use. It's actually all done in weeks so let's say you're taking 34 weeks out of the 52 weeks available and creating 18 weeks' SPL for your husband. (Details in section 5 on that link above).

He then puts in an SPL application with his employer to take his 18 weeks from whatever date (this can be at the same time as you're on mat leave) and hands in whatever paperwork they ask for - statutory requirement is by declaration (detailed in section 7 on that link above) but some employers might ask for copy of MatB1 to qualify for occupational entitlements etc so need to check their policy.

Pay is a different entitlement... you're entitled to 39 weeks' statutory mat pay and based on my example you're going to use 34 of those weeks, which then leaves your husband with the remaining 5 weeks to receive as Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) which is the same rate as SMP. So if he's taking 18 weeks then he'll only be paid ShPP for the first 5 weeks.

Definitely check whether his work offer any enhanced pay for SPL.

Wow thank you @nerdsville for your incredibly thorough reply! Much appreciated and I’ll have a good read through that maternity action page you linked me to

Nerdsville said what I was going to say.

If you have an occupational scheme it's worth knowing that the couple can decide who takes the paid weeks so that they maximise the paid elements.
I took some of my leave unpaid to maximise DH's paid entitlement as we were better off as a family unit that way.