Shared parental leave/shared parental pay

[Llamallamallama]

What's the difference between SPL and SPP?

DH is eligible for 1 month paid leave and I'm eligible for 4 months paid leave. If we do shared parental leave, am I giving up my paid leave to DH? Or is that only if we do SPP? DH is quite keen on having more time with the baby so we'll make it work...just would like to have a better picture of how the finances will work out, and a bit nervous about giving up my salary with unknown new baby expenses.

Why are you only eligible for 4 months pay? Or do you mean 4 months full pay before SMP kicks in?

Shared parental pay is only £145 a week. So it would be beneficial to claim your employers occupational schemes and the SPP

Check out the guide on the gov site:

www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay

Oh yes I meant 4 months full pay before SMP kicks in.

So SPP is £145/week divided between DH and I? But only after we have both taken our full pay allowance?

Sorry if I seem thick, not sure if it's pregnancy fog but can't seem to work out how our finances would look

There’s a calculator on the gov.uk site I think.

Is one month your dhs paternity leave entitlement and is that all he wants to take? You would only need to use shared parental leave if he wanted to take extra time on top of his normal paternity leave.
In that case you would give notice to curtail your maternity leave by however much extra he wanted to take e.g. if he wanted an extra month off you would notify that you would end your leave a month early.

www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/

Thank you for the link. DH would like more than one month so if I understand correctly, we are entitled to 5 months total full pay leave, which we can decide to share how we see fit? For example: 2 months for him and 3 months for me. Will I also receive SMP during the time he is on full pay or will my pay be £0? And after that 5 months, is my mat leave over, or am I still entitled to SMP?

No. Shared leave only applies to statutory pay, ie the £145 per week. You can’t give any of your occupational maternity pay to your partner.

Oh I've massively misunderstood then. So I can take 4 months full pay, DH can take 1 month, and then we share the remaining SMP? We were wanting to be home together for the first few months though, so will the bit of my SMP entitlement that he takes just be deducted from my total allowance? Or can he only take it once we've both used up our occupational pay (at the end of my 4 months?)

It will depend on the exact wording of each of your employers' policies. It might be that your husband can only get full pay if you have sacrificed the first month, it might not be possible for you both to have full pay. It's a complete minefield though so you'll need to both speak to your HR people and find out exactly how it works.

So you would be best to stay on your maternity pay for the 4 months you get enhanced pay. Your dh would take his 1 month paternity leave from his employer. You then give notice to end your maternity leave/ pay to free up more time off/pay for him. I think in total you have 37 weeks of paid leave that can be shared so take off the 4 months that you are taking as maternity pay and work out how much you will give to him e.g. 4 weeks and work out when you would need to return to work in order to free up the extra weeks.
(Does that even make sense?! It sounds very complex)

Thank you dementedpixie, I think it makes sense? I've spoken with my HR darceybussell but they didn't clarify much, hopefully DH's will be more of a help.