Can someone help me understand mat leave/kit days?

[Alicia870]

Hi everyone
Would greatly appreciate your help!
My mat leave officially starts 17th September.
I am entitled to the 6 weeks 90% pay then 33 weeks stat pay and plan to go back when this ends which would mean the first week I plan to go back to work is week beginning 10th June. Currently full time but plan to go back 4 days.
I am entitled to 10 Keeping in touch days and my annual leave/bank holidays.
So my question is, how could I work a phased return to work using annual leave and kit days? I’m so clueless with this!!

Your kit days need to be used before you officially go back as you will be paid for these days in addition to your maternity pay - you could do one a week for 10 weeks or 2/3 a week for a few weeks, or one a month - entirely up to you.

With regards to the holiday days, how many will you have accrued? You could use up your holidays before you go back or you could take 1 day a week as holiday until you’ve used them up.

Has your employer agreed part time working? You’ll need to agree your kit days and holiday days before you go back I should think if you’re taking a days holiday a week.

Not sure if that helps in anyway tho!!

Keeping in touch days would have to happen during your leave. So you could use them leading up to the the end of your mat leave.

Annual leave would need to be taken after your mat leave. It depends on how phased you want your return to be. I’m taking 9 months maternity leave and then for the following three months I will be taking 2 days of annual leave per week so that I have a phased return of 3 working days a week.

Hope that helps.

Thank you! So am I right that from week beginning 10th June (when mat pay ends) I can still use kit days for example 2 per week for 5 weeks - this would take me to mid July then could use whatever annual leave I have accrued (2 days a month) before I actually return?
I’m so confused! They have agreed to me going back 4 days

When you say they need to be used within leave, is this within a 12 month period from starting Mat leave as opposed to the 39 weeks pay?

Yes that's correct. You are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave but only 39 are paid so you could do your kit days after the paid period finishes. Then officially end your May leave and move on to annual leave.

Mat*

Fabulous - thank you for your help! Baby brain taking over!

You've just given me a very good idea about organising mine using the KIT days actually! Thanks x

I think KIT days have to be mutually agreed aonyour employer could say no ypubcany have any or like mine make me write a case about why I wanted two.

Yes, you could use your kit days at two per week and then have an official return to work date 5 weeks after your maternity pay ends and then use holiday days so that you’re not working a full week until you’ve used up all of your holiday. This would need to be discussed with your employer but in theory you could do this!

Thanks all - great help. I briefly discussed this with my manager today but Brain frazzled with so many other thoughts and takes me a while to process this type of thing so very helpful! They are flexible and hopefully should be reasonable about how the days are used I think. Feel clearer about it now