Shared Parental Leave/Pay

[pennyw85]

Desperate for some plain language advice as the internet has confused me so much! I am planning on taking 7 months maternity leave, this is all statutory as my company doesn't offer any enhancement.

My husband works for a company which does offer enhanced maternity/parental pay. He's heard about Shared Parental Leave and thinks it's a good idea to take the 2 months that I'm not taking (taking it up to 9 months of leave used between us). This will be either after I've gone back or overlapping the last two months.

Firstly - is this possible?
Secondly - if it is possible, will his 2 months be paid at statutory (based on my pay) or enhanced (based on his company)?

Thanks in advance!

His payment during leave will be based on his company's SPL policy rather than maternity or paternity. He needs to see their SPL policy.

Absolutely possible, so long as you both meet the eligibility criteria for shared parental leave (which are here: www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/eligibility

As pp says, what he'll be paid at depends on his company's shared parental leave policy. He may need to talk to HR about it, as it can be quite hard to work out - the problem is, I found, that even though it's been around for a while now, lots of employers are still using handbooks that date from before SPL and so make no reference to it.

We are new to this too my understanding is that he can take his shared parental leave anytime in the first year as long as his work agrees on the timing, you can overlap or do it at different times.

If he has enhanced shared parental pay his employer will pay him that. You will not receive any maternity pay for the weeks he takes as Shared Parental Leave. Eg. you get 39 weeks paid SMP he takes 8 weeks Shared Parental Leave = you can only claim 31 weeks paid SMP. You need to notify your employer of the number of weeks he is taking so they don't overpay you SMP.

Hope that makes sense.

It'll be the pay that he's entitled to according to his company's policy, rather than yours. I think though that if you're taking 7 months then he'll be paid what he's entitled to for months 8 and 9 (not what he'd be entitled to for months 1 and 2, assuming these aren't the same).

1- yes
2 - enhanced

I have just been going through this with a dad-to-be that I manage.

Thanks everyone for your help! Fingers crossed both our HR departments are helpful