Paternity pay

[guest477337]

I'm so gutted, I'm 37 and a half weeks, we planned my partner would take the full two weeks off after the baby is here to help and home and get settled into a routine.

I thought they get paid at 90% but it's only 100 and something a week 😩 we would be loosing out in thousands and not something we can afford to do.

How is this even fair? It's only two weeks! I'm so scared of being on my own from the get go, I was really looking forward to having the support at the start.

DH got full pay from his company. Have you checked ypur DH’s policy or just the stat policy.

This is the same for us (and no we haven’t saved either, but a lot goes on private education... and we’re also just terrible spenders) so I’ve decided to stay in his London appartment so he can at least help out in evenings or bring me lunch on his lunch breaks etc... whatever helps! I really don’t want to be alone and it’s the only logical way to go about it

You've had 9 months to save and if he earns thousands per week you should be able to manage for a couple of weeks. Some things are more important than money!

@Rachie1986
Yes he's SLT...so obviously on a good salary but it's still difficult for us to swallow when we're losing my salary for 9 months too with all our existing outgoings.

It is difficult but you have had 9 months to prepare and save.

When people say babies are cheap, they really are not. Loss of earnings, loss of pension contributions, childcare costs are massive. It's not milk and nappies it's all the other stuff!

@2014newme have you read the thread before commenting? As I've already said I made a mistake and thought it was 90% pay and only realised the other day it obviously we would have prepared better

wowbutter that’s your employer’s policy at fault, it would be open to them to pay enhanced pay for SPL if they wanted.

OP yeah SPP is crap. My OH only took a week and then a week’s annual leave to make his 2 weeks off.

Unfortunately paternity pay is very poor, and whilst we are lucky that men even get this compared to what they used to (nothing) I think it’s a pretty poor show in this day and age.

Luckily, I was very anal about it during our first pregnancy and found all this info out and we arranged for hubby to take holiday instead. This time round due to his position, he will be paid as normal but be ‘off work, on call’ so if needed he will go in , still respond to emails etc.

I wonder if your husbands company could offer some work from home time, or even just bring some holiday forward from next year for him. Surly they have known for a while he was expecting and will have known the crack - don’t the men have to fill a form in like women?? Last pregnancy, when I’d put all my forms in, my HR gave me a full breakdown of what I would be paid each month , and that was a very small company!

What I’m getting at , is surly his HR dept should have told him that kind of info, I’d be a bit miffed if they hadn’t!

Op yes I have read the thread thanks 😂🤣😂🤣😂

Bit you did say 'how is this even fair'. Fairness doesn't apply, you made a mistake that's not anybody being unfair it's just an error. Your dh can still take 2 weeks off.

If your dh earns over 1000 a week then you have at least three weeks to save as much of that as possible to see him through the fortnight off.

It’s not up to the HR department to seek out individuals and tell them what they are entitled to, it’s up to all staff to take responsibility by reading the relevant company policies or employment legislation and then contacting their manager or HR if they need any clarification.

If you have to fill in a form to request paternity leave and pay (which you do) it’s hardly ‘seeking out’ a person to tell them what they are entitled to.

Any half decent HR dept would send a letter confirming receipt of the application for paternity leave, confirmation if it’s 1 or 2 weeks, and the amount at which they will be paid. Surly this is the norm for most HR depts?!

OP - did you other half put his SC3 form in?

There have been a couple of court cases where men have taken their company to court for paying women a higher rate of parental leave than men. One of the companies was Network Rail. Unfortunately unless MEN are prepared to fight for this to improve, nothing will change.