Paternity leave

[Jessloveschocolate]

Hello,
Does anyone know if paternity leave has to start when the baby is born or can it start at a later date? We want his paternity to start a week later.
Thank you for any help!

www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave/leave

@peachypetite I have looked on that website but can't see anything about the start date... All it says is:
"Start and end dates
Leave cannot start before the birth. It must end within 56 days of the birth (or due date if the baby is early).
You must give your employer 28 days’ notice if you want to change your start date.
You do not have to give a precise date when you want to take leave (for example 1 February). Instead you can give a general time, such as the day of the birth or 1 week after the birth."

Exactly - must have used it by 56 days after the birth which is approx two months so of course he can start a week later.

Yes you can select a date in advance to book this from :) as PP said it has to be within so long of the babies birth though. You can either take one week or two.

[quote Jessloveschocolate]@peachypetite I have looked on that website but can't see anything about the start date... All it says is:
"Start and end dates
Leave cannot start before the birth. It must end within 56 days of the birth (or due date if the baby is early).
You must give your employer 28 days’ notice if you want to change your start date.
You do not have to give a precise date when you want to take leave (for example 1 February). Instead you can give a general time, such as the day of the birth or 1 week after the birth."[/quote]
Read the last line you quoted, OP

Sorry @peachypetite that's really stupid of me I'll blame baby brain!
Another question (not sure if this is really obvious)... My husband is a teacher so gets 2 weeks off for Christmas. My due date is in the first week back after Christmas holidays. He has told work my due date and said he wants it from then. If I was to have the baby during the Christmas holidays would he still be able to start his paternity at a later date (even though it has been agreed to start when the baby is born). Sorry if that is really obvious!!

@Jessloveschocolate I’d say that’s for him to sort with his employer directly.

@peachypetite I know he can go to his employer, was just wondering if anyone had experienced something similar.

He's arranged that date with them so he should be able to start then regardless, unless of course you go over in which case it can't start until the baby is born.

If anecdotes are helpful, my DH started his paternity leave a few weeks after DS was born (was near the end of the annual leave year, so he used up his annual leave for the first few weeks).

@spam88 thank you. That makes sense. So I guess it would be similar to your husband... He would be using his holiday and then starting paternity after that.