Maternity leave confusion

[strawberryplum993]

Hi all!

I’m pregnant with my first baby and wanted to check a few things Re mat leave. I haven’t told my employer I’m pregnant yet (planning to do so soon but have some health bits I’m waiting on first) so I can’t ask them yet.

First of all, when do most people tend to begins their mat leave? My EDD is 29th June and I work from home full time at a desk job so no need for commuting etc.

Secondly, with regards to your annual leave while on mat leave, I’m a little confused as to what actually happens. Our annual leave re sets every January and I understand you are entitled to carry over up to 28 days (incl. bank holidays). I haven’t taken any holiday yet this year but wondering if I haven’t taken any annual leave before I go on mar leave, would I carry it all over to next year and perhaps add some on to the end of my mat leave?

Very confused as first time doing this.

Thanks all :)

All depends on your circumstances.

My company lets you carry over all annual leave not used.

I started my mat leave a week before my EDD with my first, but had two weeks annual leave prior (so 3 weeks in total). She was 2 weeks early so they just tagged the annual leave week on the end.

My second was a difficult pregnancy, I was under constant care. Went for my normal (weekly by then) appointment, was told they were booking me for a section the next day. I called my boss, agreed to put it down as sick leave until baby was actually born, then start my mat leave.

Does your employer have a policy on the intranet or anything like that? I had a good read of ours before notifying them formally.

Everyone approaches when to go on mat leave differently. Having read a few threads like this a lot of people seem to aim to have 1-2 weeks off before EDD, usually by using annual leave and then starting mat leave on EDD. If your baby was early mat leave would automatically start when your baby is born anyway and most people like to have some time off.

You have to tell your employer before the end of week 25 or you aren't entitled to SMP so definitely do that. If they ask to be notified in writing you have to do it that way. I've written to them by snail mail and also emailed with images of my mat B1 just to be sure as not sure anyone is opening the post in COVID! You can change when your mat leave starts with 28 days notice (that's a legal thing so should be the same for everyone and means you could change your mind).

You are entitled to accrue annual leave while on mat leave in line with your contract (so if you are lucky enough to normally get 35 days you'd accrue 35 days) - this is in law so you will definitely get that at the end of your mat leave. If your contract says you are paid for bank holidays (many do) you will get those as well.

Any leave you have accrued before maternity leave is legally a grey area from what I could see (I had the same question as you!) as it hasn't been tested in court as far as I can tell but I haven't managed to find an employer that doesn't allow you to carry it forward. It's probably best to have a conversation with your boss before you formally notify to agree your annual leave plans. My employer "encourages" us to take annual leave in the year it is accrued but in reality lets you carry it over (which is what everyone does where I work! Someone in my team had a baby in December, worked like a dog the whole year through their pregnancy and got an extra 6 weeks at the end of mat leave!)

Oh and one final thing if you are off work with a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before your EDD mat leave begins automatically. Just worth being aware.

BlueberryPancake has done a great job responding above!
There's a bit of further info here:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/
But best option is to check if you have a maternity policy at work (most medium and above companies will have one) as it may give you more info or more entitlement than the statutory minimum.
On when to start mat leave, totally up to you! I had a friend who started 2 months before her due date and has loved it, and another friend who gets bored at home so she's only starting a week before her due date. Depends what kind of person you are :) I'm working from home so no commuting excuses etc haha and starting my mat leave 3 weeks before due date, can't wait to finish!

Can I just check something with you guys in regards to maternity pay? Is there anyone here who is only being offered statutory maternity pay by employer?

Thanks so much everyone! This is so helpful! Really appreciate it :)

There is a little info on our company intranet but not enough to be helpful so glad I asked here. I’ll definitely get some more info from HR once I tell them in a couple of weeks but good to know the different options. I’m very lucky to have quite a good enhanced maternity pay so thankful for that.

I'm 33 weeks WFH but with pregnancy aches I am very pleased to be finishing at 36 weeks. I'm so tired! Lots of mums will say work as long as you can but I'm really glad I didn't.

@serialplanner I think I’ll finish a little earlier! Despite working from home I’m usually very busy and can get quite stressed with work so I imagine I’ll be thankful to have a bit of extra time!

@strawberryplum993 this was my thought with it being financial year end. Also now I'm starting to think about the birth and stuff it's no bad thing to have a couple of weeks to get in the zone.

All the best with your plans xxx

@Khart85 I only receive statutory maternity pay. What’s your query?

I also have a work from home job and will still start my leave at 37w (ELCS @39w). I can’t carry AL over so will do 2w AL / 39w Maternity / 2 week AL which I will have accrued. So 10m off

Thanks for your message. I was really curious as I was totally shocked today to find out that all my school offer statutory maternity. I knew it was different in the private sector just thought they would pay at least 3 months full pay?

@strawberryplum993 I was wfh in run up to my dd being born (pre Covid and usually office based but hot summer and tolerant boss) despite issues with blood pressure I worked up to 37 and that was worth it as increased the annual leave/mat leave on other end. That was knowing I'd be having a CS as she was breech so had at 39 weeks. Maybe see how you feel nearer the time - if baby arrives late that could
be a long time at home nesting! (A colleague finished at 36 weeks and was induced when 10 days late and def wishes she'd worked longer)

Sorry if repeating, I haven't read the full tread.

My mat leave started the day my DC was born. I took 10 days off prior to that as holiday. Made things easy that it was a planned Csection so we knew the date, but luckily, work would have been flexible either way; meaning that before we learned the need for Csection, I was going to go on holiday one week before due date and switch to mat leave the day DC is born and adjust the number of holidays taken appropriately. Hope that makes sense? When my mat leave end I took an extra 3 weeks as holiday, all from the previous years allowance.

Your employer should allow you to carry over any unsized holiday from one year into the next. That's 28 days statutory in total that includes bank holidays too. If you have any extra holidays as part of your contract (due to length of service etc) you can carry that over at the discretion of your employer.

Good luck with it all OP, It's shocking how poor may pay is in the UK. Guess that's a whole other tread haha!!

THREAD!!! (What's wrong with me!!! 🥱😅)

@Khart85 I teach in a state school and we only get 6 weeks full pay! 3 months would be massively generous.

@serialplanner thank you! Wishing you all the best! Xxx

@Jfw82 @PenguinsandIcicles I’m lucky that I have a very understanding boss and flexible work place too so hopefully they will continue to be flexible with my dates :) I don’t want to take too much time off before but a small amount to get myself ready...we shall see!

@PotteringAlong wow, only 6 weeks full pay! Crazy how different it is everywhere. I’m very lucky to have a generous enhanced pay (6 months) which I know is very lucky

@Khart85 I think it's very common to get statutory mat pay only rather than a contractual element as well

@strawberryplum993 that is very lucky!

I had my baby in June. I took mat leave 1 month before due date and before that I used all my remaining days if holiday for that year. I hadn't been well in pregnancy so wanted to go asap. When I go back, we'll be in New annual leave year so even though I go back part way through it I still have a full 28 days leave. Hope this helps.

@Khart85 as others have said it’s pretty standard most places only offer statutory. Luckily I only work 20 hours a week so I don’t lose a ridiculous amount of money. Must be very hard for people working full time/highly paid. I know a lot of my friends have saved up their monetary loss prior to conceiving

I had three mat leaves at a different company each time, all desk based office jobs. Only one paid additional maternity pay, the other two were both statutory minimum.

With DC1, I worked in the office until 38wks, had a week off, then did some data entry work at home in my 39th week. Entry level position, no savings, I wanted to spend as much time off with the baby afterwards as possible.

Dc2 I finished at 36 weeks so I could enjoy a bit more quiet time before the madness of the school Xmas hols (dc2 born at Christmas, DC1 at school by then)

Dc3 I finished even earlier still. She was born end of Jan, and I used 3 weeks of that year's annual leave to get me through January, and my mat leave technically started on her due date. Plus 2 weeks of previous year's AL for Christmas, I ended up finishing at 34+4 or something.

This is a really long way of saying you can use AL creatively to pad out your time off before your due date, and then use what's carried over to either extend your leave, or stagger your return - after DCs 1 & 3 I used what was left to shorten my first few weeks back to help ease us back in the routine of early starts, nursery runs, and being apart again.