Shared Parental Leave - anyone?

[FirstTimeBumps]

Has anyone any experience with SPL? My other half would like to take a month off when baby arrives and was going to take PP plus two weeks holiday but I suggested he take SPL so it's guaranteed. He knows he won't get his full pay like if he had taken holidays. I'm just not sure now if he would have to take 4 weeks SPL or if he would get two weeks paternity and then convert to shared?

If anyone could clarify I would be very grateful

As far as my understanding of SPL goes, you can't both take the leave at the same time. So if you're taking maternity leave, your partner can't take SPL until you're back at work.

Lally that's not correct. They can take the leave at the same time.

We adopted so slightly different but I had to take 2 weeks Adoption Leave before converting the rest to SPL. My DH had to take two weeks of Adoption Leave before then taking what he would use out of the SPL allowance. So I believe that your husband would need to take two weeks paternity leave and then take the rest as SPL.

When we did SPL my DH had two weeks paid leave when baby was born and I was on ML /SPL. So we were both off for two weeks at the beginning. Then his SPL kicked in at 10 months when I went back to work. But it is company specific and worth checking out his company policy with HR. The 3 months he took at the end when I went back to work was unpaid.

Oh really? That's not what we were told, we couldn't both take it at the same time as then it might mean that we take more than we're entitled to.

Apologies if I've got it wrong. We had a real issue with my partner's employer telling him he wasn't eligible so I think the rules aren't entirely clear yet.

You can be off at the same time. You have to give up some of your maternity leave so that he can take shared leave.

We did shared leave. I took 6 months then my husband took 3 months (when she was a bit less fragile in his words) they had a lovely time and have a great bond now. It was financially better as my first 6 months maternity was on full pay and I was the higher earner so we didn’t really lose any money over maternity leave. It needs to be taken at a separate time, usually, to your leave but can be staggered anywhere within the leave period but would definitely recommend it as you never get that time back with your kids

He can take the paternity leave first and yes you can be off at the same time. It's a lot of forms for 2 weeks though, holiday might be easier.

m.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4911

You can take SPL at the same time but it just means the total time you can take is shorter. With ML you can take 52 weeks and this is the same with SPL, but you are using double if you are both off at the same time IFSWIM. Also you can't both use your policies separately and get the best of them, for example both be on full/90% pay for the first 6 weeks. Only one would be entitled to that. It's quite complicated and completely different for every company as per their policy. So check yours and talk to HR

You can definitely take it at the same time. Yes, he should take his 2 weeks of PL and then add on a further 2 weeks of SPL.
My employer made me full in a form where I had to document week by week when we would both be off and when it was just me, to show that the total total number of weeks would not exceed what the mat leave package is there.

From that link:
Eligible parents can be off work together for up to 6 months or alternatively stagger their leave and pay so that one of them is always at home with their baby in the first year

To trigger the right to SPL for one or both parents, the mother/adopter must:
have curtailed, or given notice to reduce, their maternity/adoption leave, pay or allowance

This site has loads of great info about how it all works.
www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/

We’re planning to do 9 months off for me and three months off for DH. I don’t get paid anything for the last three months of mat leave, whereas his company policy is full pay on SPL for up to 20 weeks. Makes sense!!!

Thanks for all your replies. The government website seemed to miss off the PP element so looked like in effect he would be two week paternity pay worse off. Thanks for clarifying. We don't have a HR department but my manager is quite good at maternity related stuff. Both me and my other half work for the same company so in effect it should be pretty straight forward.

My DH and I are currently on SPL at the same time.

I'm taking 9 months off and he's taken 3. All his time off is unpaid as my 9 months is paid via SMP.

It's been fantastic having him at home, but is quite a struggle financially.

The advice you've been given here is spot on. You can defo be off at same time. Only detail I would add is paternity pay (the 2 weeks all fathers are entitled to) is paid at statutory rate of about £140 per week, not 2 weeks full pay.

So, 2 weeks pat leave + 2 weeks hols would mean more pay than 2 weeks pat + 2 weeks shared leave, unless you aren't going to use all your paid mat leave.

@Carrotmama I've told him that the SPL is paid at the lower rate and he's not phased as would rather use holidays later in the year. Plus if it was taken as SPL rather than holidays I feel it's more guaranteed than having to throw holidays in last minute and then possibly having them declined by the company.

Lally the rules changed in around 2015 and made SPL more flexible. We did in 2014 under the old rules - I took time off, followed by my husband.

@Carrotmama that is the statutory minimum for Pat Leave. Many companies offer more. My DH for instance got a weeks full pay and a week statutory Pat Pay.

My partner gets two weeks paternity at full pay through his work so it can just depend on employer benefits

Oh I see, my DP is a teacher he just got 2 weeks statutory.

My husband is going to take SPL. His company offer two weeks paternity followed by 16 weeks SPL on full pay. I’m self employed so only entitled to £145 a week for 39 weeks. I’ll give him 16 weeks of those 39 and we’ll have a total of 18 weeks off together. The pay can vary from company to company so definitely check with HR.

My husband and I want to do this so thanks for starting this thread! Useful info.

Me and DH are doing this - he is taking his 2 weeks paternity and then 2 weeks spl when baby arrives (his company pay full pay for pat leave). He won't be paid for the spl as I'm taking the full pay for the 9 months but I'm also going back at 10.5 months and he is having another month off spl when I go back. The main thing was that I had to sign intention to return forms with all dates so committing to end M:l early to make sure he could have the time off too

My DH and I looked into this at my work. Their policy is that you can take SPL at the same time BUT both parents must then convert to SPL so maternity leave is stopped (after the mandatory two weeks) and converted to SPL. Any work offers 18 weeks full pay for maternity leave, but SPL is statutory only, so if we were both to move to SPL after the initial 2 weeks ML and PL then I would lose 16 weeks of full pay.

They think this is fair, it is of course not fair. If I wanted to go back to work after 2 weeks and DH stay at home with baby he'd get statutory pay, wheras as the mother I'd get 18 weeks full pay. That's not equal parental rights. And we work for the same organisation.

Look into your individual maternity and SPL policies.

@GreenMeerkat we have no HR or maternity/paternity policy so it's SPL anywho, although him working more hours at a higher rate than me would mean less coming in but he is happy and it is doable, so if he would like to take some further time off I'm happy for him to do that by us both converting to SPL