Can I extend my maternity leave

[AnnaAtkinson8990]

Hey all
I have requested 9m plus some annual leave from work for my maternity leave. That will be around 11 months total. I'm due in August and starting to regret not taking the full 12m leave I'm entitled to. Can I ask for the remaining 3 months? I'm cautious my maternity cover is only from August to August but may be flexible to stay longer. I know I have to give them notice like 8 weeks before coming back on my return day but wanted to sort things now rather than last minute

Maternity leave + additional maternity leave (the 9 months of stat pay + the 3 months unpaid) has to be continuous. Once you start using annual leave, you’ve returned to work and ended any form of mat leave. So if you want the additional 3 months, you
need to have that time off before you start using your accumulated annual leave. Don’t forget that you accumulate bank hols too.

I can’t work out from your post if you’ve had your baby, or if you are due this summer. By law, you don’t need to tell your employer wten you are coming back until 8 weeks before the end of the year you take off. Ie: in June for you. This is regardlesss of whatever you say before you go.

Disclaimer: My youngest is 13, this may have changed, but i don’t think it has.

I assume you mean you're due to return in August? (Clarifying your post and the query above.)

Not answering your question, but I needed to extend my second maternity leave (like PP quite a few years ago now) and I applied for parental leave. That was of course unpaid.

Just looked on gov.uk and the 8 weeks' notice is statutory. So of course you can extend if you give enough notice. Whether this will cause problems for your employer or not is another question.

Gov.uk says 21 days' notice for parental leave.

Yes, you haven't had the baby yet and you're allowed to take the full 12 months maternity leave. If you take more than 6 months, then you're only entitled to the same or similar job. If you take 6 months, you're entitled to the same job.

Just tell your work that you'll be taking the full period of leave.

My baby is due this August so I'm still at work at the moment.

I don't see what the issue is then! Notice is more than adequate.

Just tell them you want to take your full maternity leave. You should have just done that in the first place and then you could have given 8 weeks notice if you were going to return earlier.

So, if you havn't had your baby yet, there should be no problem. Just tell them your new plans. They can't hold you to anything until 2 months before the end of mat leave.

You're legally entitled to 12 months mat leave. Just know that for the first 26 weeks your employer must keep your job open for you to return to. If you take Additional Maternity Leave (the remaining 26 weeks, up to 52 weeks total), your employer must try to offer you the same job back, but if that's not reasonably practical, they must offer you a suitable alternative role with the same or better terms and conditions.

As a manager, dealing with maternity cover is never a bad as the expectant mums think its going to be for me!

As a mum, I'd encourage you to take all the time you can afford, and want to. I love my career, but DS has just taken his GCSEs and it only feels like I went back to work from mat leave a few months ago. It's never been more true that the days are long, but the years are short.

Good luck with your mat leave, your birth, your baby.

My work assumed full year and then expected you to let them know when you would be returning.
I was done to take the full year but initially said I was hoping to return at 9 months but was too unwell so let them know that I would be taking the full year and then let them know I would be transferring from maternity leave to sick leave.

Just tell them now. Legally you can take the full year so you are free to change your mind up until the last 8 weeks of maternity leave - even if you have given them a predicted return to work date. As long as you tell them 8 weeks before that date it is changing, legally they can't do anything but say ok.

Don't worry about your maternity cover...mine left while I was off (6 months in) work coped while I wasn't there and didn't / couldn't fill it for the 6 months.