At what stage do I agree a date for maternity leave and any change to the hours I work?

[SadPander]

Hi,

Does anyone know at what stage I will be expected to, or allowed to discuss how long I want to take for maternity leave and the hours I want to work on my return? When I told my boss I was pregnant at 12 weeks we didn't discuss it at all, I'm now approaching 20 weeks and she is off for personal reasons.

I'm in the process of applying for a mortgage (they will want to know my return to work date) and also putting my name down on a very long Nursery waiting list. I'm guessing the nursery are going to need to know the date I want the baby to start there and the number of hours per week. At the moment I'm not sure if work will agree to me going part time or condensing my hours so not sure I can apply for the nursery place untill I have my hours officially agreed?

I had to let my work know by "15 weeks before the expected week of confinement" and 12 weeks before Mat leave was due to start (although there was some capacity for changing) I think this was so they could come up with a payment schedule.

I am also marking my place as I would be interested to know about return to work hours.

At my work (and guess this is pretty standard?) the deadline for confirming is as Mayanbob says, the end of the 15th week before your due date because of applying for SMP. The only way for me to tell work formally was to give them my MATB1 form, which you usually get at your 25week midwife appointment. That anc an application for mat leave form. So quite a quick turnaround.
Regarding return to work, HR have sent me a letter confirming the start Date of my mat leave and date of return to work (which I set out in my application). They ask that applications to change working pattern are put in something like 12 weeks before return to work, so I don't have to decide before starting mat leave but did discuss it with my boss before I applied for mat leave.
I would imagine you'll want to talk to your boss before your 25week appt? Do you have an HR dept you can chat to also?

Thanks both. So that means 15 weeks before my due date, at 25 weeks? My mortgage company will only give me an offer if my maternity leave is 4 months or less, so going to have to tell work that I'm only taking 4 months, and then hopefully change this later on to the 6-9 months I actually want to take. Its a nightmare! Not sure what will happen if the mortgage company ask HR for this info and they don't have it as I wont have had my MATB1 form by then.

workingtitle can I ask how you plan to get a place with a nursery/childminder if you don't decide on working hours until quite late? Did your boss approve your plans in principle? Its a bit complicated where I work as everything has to be approved by my manager, higher manager and HR, so don't think there's much chance of getting any sort of informal agreement.

I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but I was only given the option of stating I wanted 6 or 12 months (ordinary mat leave and additional mat leave) in reality I can take any amount of months up to 12, but I can't tell them now what that will be (even though I know I want to take 9 months), I just need to let them know 8 weeks before I want to return.

You don't have to wait until 25 weeks before you discuss it with you hr department. I would go and see them next week so you know what their policy is.

You don't have to tell them at this stage how long you want to take off. Most people don't know.

I'd check the rules but it's something like - no need to notify a return date if you return after Ordinary Maternity Leave, inform x weeks before return if taking additional.

SadPander we have had to put ourselves down for a nursery place already, but not sure yet exactly how many sessions we'll need so I put in for the max and the once we've worked it out we can change. Lots of people don't decide on their return to work hours until close to the time and I guess nurseries are used to this? I guess if we were using a childminder we wouldn't find them til later on anyway when plans were firmer. I have talked to my boss about different options for return to work but was careful not to give the impression I had made any decision.

My IFA told me that the mortgage company can't take mat leave into consideration as this would only discriminate against women. They do ask if you anticipate a CBS grin earnings - so, maybe that's it....

Are you using an IFA? It can totally be worth the fee.

Change in - not CBS grin!!!

The actual cut off is as everyone has already said. I ended up speaking to my boss about dates, even including return dates, very early on. I think the hormones were raging and I really wanted to get things sorted. I regretted it later on. Give yourself time to think it all through - you need to inform them of your pregnancy and dates by 15wks before ewc but don't go the whole hog and try to arrange the other end like me. xx

Thanks all that's really helpful. Blankiefan - they asked if there would be any dependents living in the house and also if I would be taking anytime off work (not specifically maternity, but they didn't ask it of DH so that was obviously what they were getting at!) They will then only take my lowest earnings over the maternity period into account. After 4 months I go down to half pay which is too low for them to give us the mortgage (we have savings to cover this but they wont take this into account) so I have to tell them I'll only be off 4 months.

Sorry posted too soon. They apparently need to check my return date with work, but as I haven't confirmed one as yet I'm not sure how this will work. I guess I could tell work 4 months (although I can't do this till I have the form thing at 25 weeks) and then notify them that I actually want longer (9 months) once the mortgage is approved - they can't say no to me asking to change my return date providing I give them enough notice can they? I feel awful messing them around though as I guess they will make plans to take a replacement off for 4 months and then have to try to extend this to cover the additional time I want off.

Maybe if I ask my HR to inform the mortgage company that it is my intention to return after 4 months they will do this even though it hasn't all been made official on forms? Possibly this is wishful thinking!

That's a bit stressful, SadPander. You have to do what's best for you though, so I wouldn't feel too bad formally stating 4m mat leave for now. If you have a good relationship maybe tell your line manager that you are planning to extend it? You have no obligation to say now though.