Paternity leave and benefits when father takes full custody

[VanillaMango]

Hi
I am posting this on behalf of a family friend. He’s recently found out his ex is 28 weeks pregnant and plans to relinquish the baby for adoption which he has said no to and will take custody himself.

Is there an alternative to maternity pay but for fathers that isn’t the 2 weeks paternity leave? If he is only entitled to 2 weeks paternity leave he will likely have to quit work till baby is old enough to be in childcare. He will have full custody of the baby so is he entitled to maternity pay or the equivalent because of him having full custody?

Also based on his wage and rent costs (as he is having to move in to a 2 bed) he will be entitled to a UC top up whilst working.

His ex already has 3 children (not his) so if she was keeping the child, she couldn’t claim for this child due to the limit. However, will he receive the child element or because of her already getting it for her kids and being over the limit means he can’t get it even though it would be the only child on his claim (albeit not his)

Also if he is entitled to the maternity grant, can he claim this despite the fact she already claimed it for her first child in 2014?

4 weeks per year.

As she isn’t working and can’t take shared parental leave, is he not entitled to take all the parental leave himself?

If they are unmarried, then he won't be legally recognised as the baby's father unless the mother registers the baby with him present and adds his name to the birth certificate.

Is there a possibility the mother would prevent this?

I think he needs to speak to SS and possibly a lawyer.

He will need to speak to his employers HR department and have them look into it.

It’s not parental leave. It’s maternity leave. And it can’t be paid to fathers except under SPP. Which doesn’t apply.

No. See attached from gov.uk

He needs to talk to his employer, see if they have a shared paternity leave system? He could get 50 weeks leave/37 weeks pay.

With a combination of paternity leave, unpaid leave and any annual holiday, he could possibly organise 6 to 8 weeks off work. His employer might agree to a longer period of unpaid leave until the baby is old enough to be in nursery. Some nurseries will take 3 or 4 month olds. The employer might prefer that over losing an employee altogether.

He can't because the mother doesn't work, so there is no maternity leave to share.

He should speak to his HR department and look at his companies policies .

This isn't being picked up by most posters but it was my first thought - there's a good chance once the baby is here, the mother will change her mind. Your relative needs to factor that into his plans and not do anything permanent (like leaving his job) until he's sure this is going to happen.

The OP has another thread on the go about this and there is some additional info in that (ss already contacted the man, man's ex said no to man having custody etc).

He's had this confirmed since he found out on Monday that she's pregnant?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/adoptions/4823147-father-is-objecting-adoption-will-pr-be-taken-from-mother?reply=126739919

The other thread.
How can a paternity test have been done already?

Interesting...

Hmm. If he only found out on Monday that his ex is pregnant, I really don't see how a pre-natal paternity test can have been performed to confirm that this is in fact his babt, let alone him deciding he doesn't want to allow the baby to be released for adoption and starting to make financial plans?

I have to say, if he's serious about this then I would expect him to be having an appointment with a professional today rather than asking a mate to ask on Mumsnet. He needs to be asking through official channels if he's serious about having full custody of a child.

Monday 29th. Prenatal test was taken Tuesday 30th and paid for results that came back within 48 hours.

What has he done proactively to find out where he stands legally? Surely he's booked an urgent appointment with a family solicitor or similar?

These are the kinds of details you need to think through before starting the next thread . It's the UK Nothing happens that quickly.

From your other thread:

However after months of the mother ignoring him, she is now texting him saying she doesn’t want him to have custody as she doesn’t want to have any PR for the baby nor be on the birth certificate or have any rights to the child. She says she wants to forget about the child

So let me get this straight.....zero contact from her. She then told SS he was the father (rather than just saying it was a ONS or whatever), then within 24 hours of SS notifying him, he managed to get her to agree and carry out a medical test to prove his paternity? Even though she said she doesn't want him to have PR etc?

I'm not sure this is possible in this case but if you have a child by a surrogate you are entitled to adoption leave which is equal to maternity leave...

Very unlikely the mother agreed to prenatal testing in these circumstances.

So the mother who doesn’t want him to have custody

1. told SS he was the father
2. agreed ( at 24 hours notice ) to arrange childcare for her 3 other children and turn up to get a blood test that would prove he was the father??

That sounds ….unusual.

Legally, a baby’s mother is the woman he/she came out of.

if he’s the biological father he can’t adopt the baby.

this isn’t anything like adoption/surrogacy.