Shared Parental Leave Help!

[ConfusedMommy22]

Hi,

I was wondering if there were any experts within this field to help me out.

My partner and I wanted to do SPL. According to the government website we should be able to get 37 weeks pay between us - made up of whatever our companies offer enhanced and SSPL.

Our plan was for me to take 8 months off made up of 18 weeks full pay from enhanced company SPL, a couple of weeks SSPL and then some holiday

He was then going to take 18 weeks full pay offered by his company to cover the remaining of the 37 weeks. However his company is saying because I’m taking 18 weeks off full pay that leaves him with 0 weeks full pay and he would have to go on SSPL pay - why would my benefits from my company outstrip his entitlement at his company?

None of it makes no sense!

Hint an expert but I believe partners entitlement would be = to the week leave number.

Yes, they can choose to work it like that.

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/

My employer provides enhanced shared parental pay but deducts any weeks of maternity leave/pay taken by my partner. Can they do that?
Employers can decide on the terms of their contractual pay policies, however, they need to ensure that they do not discriminate. Some employers provide a freestanding right to enhanced shared parental pay e.g. 3 months fully paid leave, others provide what appears to be a more generous contractual provision but deduct any weeks of paid maternity leave taken by the mother or operate a sliding scale whereby any enhanced shared parental pay starts from the date the mother starts her paid maternity leave. These types of policies reduce the amount of paid shared parental leave available to the father/partner and/or reduce the amount of maternity leave taken by the mother.

Not an expert, just a pregnant lady trying to navigate all of this myself, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading.

Wow! Your husbands paternity policy is incredible! Men get 18 weeks full pay?! Where do you work 😅 got any vacancies?

In order for ShPL to begin, the mother must return to work and must end her maternity leave, so that she can commence any ShPL. I presume this is the same for the father - he must end his paternity leave, to commence ShPL, and if you’re sharing the remainder of the leave, then it is ShPL. Paternity leave cannot start before the birth and it must end within 56 days of the birth (or due date if the baby is early). So, it might be that he will lose his Paternity leave if he doesn’t take it within the first 56 days of baby’s life.

He could take the paternity leave the same time you take maternity leave, to benefit from the increased pay. Then you can divide up the ShPL between you.

In regard to the 18 weeks, are you sure you’re not getting mixed up with ‘Parental Leave’ rather than ‘Paternity Leave’?

www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/when-you-can-start

Paternity leave is not the same as shared parental leave and shared leave does not have the same rules of taking leave within 56 days of birth. The mother shortens her Maternity leave to free up leave and pay to share with her partner.

Companies can offer whatever terms they want for enhanced SPL pay, as long as they don’t discriminate on the basis of a protected characteristic. My husband’s company does the same - 16 weeks of paid leave for all new parents, but you count the 16 weeks from the day of the birth.

It’s a bit disingenuous, as it means that companies can promote themselves as having wonderfully generous and sex-neutral SPL pay, but in practice it means that men rarely get to make use of the benefit, as it is fairly unusual for a mother to take less than 16 weeks after the birth (they also wouldn’t pay it for overlapping leave in those 16 weeks).

I did shared parental leave.

In my case I only got statutory. So I took just over 4 months off than my DP took the rest. He got full pay for 4 months and then used some holiday.

He actually had more paid time off than me as he was able to have 2 weeks paternity leave plus 2 weeks holiday at the beginning simply because our DD's birth spanned two of his company years, and if he didn't take his accrued holiday he would have lost it.

His company was actually pissed with him taking so much parental leave and were trying to demand to see what my company paid me. While they aren't legally entitled to as I'm not their employee, if my DP had lied he would have got sacked for gross misconduct. (He's a union rep.)

Enhanced pay is usually for the equivalent weeks that they are taking e.g. if his company pay runs to week 18 and then drops to 0

• If he starts at week 19 it would be 0
• if he started at week 16 he would get the pay for weeks 16 and 17
• if he starts at week 10 he would get the pay for weeks 10 to 18

We got six months full pay me, and 5 months full pay my partner. However I believe they do have the right to reduce it as well, company dependent. A couple of friends took theirs at the same time and went travelling to both get the full pay.