Mat leave + holiday - what did you do?

[Gollygreatgood]

Possibly overthinking this! Curious how others have planned their holidays in Mat leave?

I'm due in late September and want to go on Mat leave 1-2 weeks before my due date.

I'll prob take 39 weeks Mat leave due to the remaining 52 weeks being unpaid, and then want to maximize time off with my accrued holiday. I'll have accrued 26 days holiday + 6 bank holidays up until April 23.

What I don't understand is, are there any benefits to taking the two weeks before I'm due as holiday and then starting mat leave on the day? Or is it better carry all holiday over and tag it onto the end of mat leave?

I also wondered what happens to next year's accrued holiday and bank holidays? Can I add a proportion to my mat leave or am I supposed to take a years worth of holiday in a shorter time period once I'm back at work?

I started mat leave 2 weeks before also.
Kept my holidays and added them onto the end, I got 2 full time pays before going back part time. Came in very handy at the time.

Only benefit to adding 2 weeks onto the start before due date would be two weeks full pay.

Your work might have policies about how they would prefer you to use it.

Don't forget that you accrue leave while you're off so you'll have that to use at the other end of your mat leave.

only your company can answer this. I had to take my leave before October. So I went on Mat leave early and started official May leave when baby was born. Meant I got paid full time for LONGER.

I took 3 weeks holiday before my maternity leave but then my LB came early so I had to cancel my holiday as you have to go on maternity the day your LO is born.. was sorted eventually but would of been easier to just carry all my holiday over instead of messing about like that

I took 2 weeks before starting mat leave at 38 weeks then 6 weeks accrued at the end leaving a week to last me feb and march in case of an emergency.

Mine had a policy that we had to take the birth year’s annual leave before maternity leave started. They struggled to get their head round annual leave year starting 1 Oct plus baby due 2 Oct = that’s not possible. If they’re a big organisation be prepared for rigid rules as to what’s taken before and after, if they’re small there may be leeway.

I took all holiday owed plus bank holidays owed in the weeks before I came back, so started getting paid a while before going back. If you change to part time they may also have policies on whether that holiday accrued in mat leave is taken as a part timer or full time - you get paid the same total amount but that impacts on whether you’re paid it over say one month or 6 weeks.

I went off work at 37w with 1w annual leave, then started mat leave at 38w. As it was, DD decided to make her appareance at 38w so my advice to everyone now is don't leave it too late to go on mat leave! I feel a bit sad that i missed out on those last glorious baby free weeks I had planned 🙃😂

All my accrued leave i tagged onto the end of mat leave and so got 6 more weeks at full pay, rather than unpaid.

Ooh didn't know that about mat leave having to start after birth. Helpful to know. Thanks

I'm a teacher so mine was slightly different..

I was 38.5 weeks when I broke up for the Christmas holidays.. I officially started my maternity leave on my due date (which was the day I gave birth also so I didn't miss a day without my baby 😂).

I went back in the july for the last week to meet my new class etc then was off for the 6 weeks on full pay as I was back to work then!

Worked well!

First time around I took two week of annual leave before starting mat leave to maximise the amount of time I got full pay at the start.

Second time around I had moved to a different employer with a better mat leave policy and I got six months on full pay. So I just started mat leave straight away. I took most of the accrued leave at the end which was nice as by that stage you’re usually on stat pay/unpaid leave.

HR was a young guy who sounded very inexperienced about mat leave, but I can def carryover which is good.

Also interested to hear about kit days. If you took them whilst officially on accused holiday at the end of your Mat leave how did that work? Does it push back your return date or do you get double pay for any kit days whilst on holiday?

I started my mat leave on my due date, but actually finished work about 3 weeks before that just using up that years AL.

I took the whole year off, then when i returned i went part time, but because you accrue annual leave whilst on mat leave i had a years worth of full time A/L (something like 32 days) to use between Feb (my return date) and start of April. My manager agreed that i could use one day a week A/L when i returned, meaning i got paid for 3 days whilst only coming in 2 (+1day of leave ). It was a really lovely phased return, normally work wouldnt allow previous years A/L to be carried over but she agrred with HR that i could use the 30 odd days this way till they ran out.

You can't do KIT says if technically on annual leave, so would need to do these when on mat leave.
Also, are you planning to go back on the same hours as you leave on? My HR dept advised me that because I was coming back on part time hours, to ensure the annual leave was used at the start because otherwise it is pro-rata, so although I accumulated say 25 days annual leave whilst on mat leave, this equated to 5 weeks. So when I was back part time, I was paid for 5 weeks leave as part time hours. Hope this makes sense? Basically make sure you take it right at the start and delay mat leave until due date, or tack it immediately on to the end of mat leave before you start any change of hours.

I'm thinking of doing this (want to take 3 weeks annual leave and then start mat leave at 39 weeks) but worried about what happens is baby comes early while you're on annual leave instead of mat leave. Did you then lose your annual leave, or were you able to carry it over into the next years allowance/end of maternity leave?

@F03t your AL would be carried over.
Just like cancelling so to speak

@F03t they had to cancel my annual leave, move my maternity and then carry over my holiday. Sounds easy but for some reason my company use the most awful internal system to manage holiday so was a bit of a nightmare to sort out

Next time I will just take my maternity from the date I want off and then carry all the holiday over

Ah bugger. That's annoying. I don't see any benefit to me doing kit days and then having a gap 6 weeks before I start. Is that a legal thing?

Honestly not sure about a part time. 4 days would be lovely in theory, but I've not mentioned it to anyone at work or even looked at the numbers in terms of nursery vs dropping a days salary.

I've had this headache of working it all out recently too! KIT days have to be used during maternity leave, and you can't take annual leave during mat leave... so if you're on annual leave at the end, officially your mat leave period has ended. You don't have to use the KIT days though, it's completely up to you, but you could maybe use them for training, or any team days, strategy sessions etc which can be a good way to stay in the loop and in touch with your team.

I’m due similar time

Personally, I’m hoping to take Annual Leave from end of August with Mat Leave starting a week before my due date as I’m older so will be induced then

Any bank holidays when you’re on Mat leave will be added to your accrued holidays. They can’t force you to take annual leave before you go off / before the holiday year ends. Legally they have to carry over when you’re on maternity leave.

With the KIT days, I’m planning a day a week then carrying on with the working 1 day a week when I tag on my months annual leave at the end of maternity. That way I’m easing back in gently, and using less annual leave but still getting full pay.

I think for most people statutory maternity pay would be about two days work a week.
You could do 2 days a week from week 40 for five weeks (to use the 10 kit days) and have essentially the same money as on maternity leave.

I used my accrued holiday to drop two days a week on my return, to give a phased return. It eased me back into work and lessened the change of being away from baby.

Minimum holiday allowance is 20 days +8bank holidays. How many do you get a year? If its minimum then you will acccrue the bank Holidays, so to speak.