Shared Parental Leave - Occupational Mat Pay impact

[spukalili]

My husband and I are due our second child in May 2023. I'm trying to work out how we can best access Shared Parental Leave. I really hope this makes sense because I'm tearing my hair out trying to understand it!

Both me and my husband have decent Occupational Mat/Pay pay policies and both organisations offer Shared Parental Leave (SPL).

I understand that in order to take SPL, you have to share your "allowance", which is 39 weeks pay or 52 weeks leave (37 and 50 weeks, minus the compulsory 2 weeks leave). This is where I'm getting confused...

My employer off 90% pay for 11 weeks, at which point it drops to 50% pay + SMP. My husband receives full pay for up to 10 weeks. I have read through the .gov policy around SPL, as well as our organisations policies, and I am none the wiser when it comes to the 39 weeks.

As my first 11 weeks of pay are solely OMP (with no SMP element), does this mean that I can take those week before I need to deduct any leave from my 39 week SPL allowance to share with my husband? From how I understand it, the shared parental leave allowance seems to be referring to Statutory Maternity Pay, which is a government paid element - something I won't receive until 11 weeks into my mat leave.

Also, I have a second employer and I also qualify for their Occupational Maternity Pay scheme. They offer 6 weeks at 100% pay. Providing I only take the occupational element of mat pay, will this impact my 39 week allowance, or is it entirely separate?

I have spoken to our HR team but I get the feeling they don't tend to get many requests for SPL, so are taking their time when it comes to preparing a response. Neither policy is very clear and refers to the same 39 week allowance.

It doesn't surprise me that this isn't something that more people access - working out your finances while having a baby is complicated enough but shared parental leave really does take the biscuit! Thank you for reading this far :)

I would be super grateful for any experiences of SPL as well! Our plan is for my husband to take his two weeks paternity leave on the birth of the baby, then take another four weeks (possibly more, depending on the answers I get!) to help me with our toddler and to keep the routine as normal as possible!

the 90% will be on top of - or inclusive of SMP, once you have started your maternity leave it doesn't stop for 11 weeks then start again, the business will, in effect 'top up' SMP to 90% of your earnings for 11 weeks.

Thank you! So I will need to take this into account when calculating the weeks my husband will have available for his shared parental leave? That is, the absolute maximum we can take while being paid will be 39 weeks (or 37, after the compulsory 2 weeks leave post birth)?

Yes, between you - so you have to give up some of your leave to allow him to take leave, be that some of the unpaid 13 weeks at the end or not. It’s also up to his employer how they pay, statutory cannot be claimed twice - as soon you you begin Shared parental leave you basically move from maternity leave on to shared parental leave for the remaining duration

Also remember that leave and pay are separate entitlements. You can give your husband some of your 52 weeks of leave but none of your 39 weeks of pay, for example.

I just mention this because my husband's company's policy was such that his occupational pay could be paid whether or not he was claiming statutory pay. So (for example), I could take 39 weeks (paid) and then he could take 13 weeks (no statutory pay, but his employer was happy to pay the 10 weeks full pay in accordance with their policy).

There's no obligation for employers to do this, but it can be worth asking!

Also, your partner can take Shared Parental Leave any time - it can be when you're off too, for example, they don't have to be consecutive.

There's a shared parental leave planner tool if that's helpful.
www.gov.uk/plan-shared-parental-leave-pay

It feels far more complicated than it should be, I'm trying to sort mine out now, plus managed an employee's SPL and both have taken ages!
Mines very simple, I'm taking all 39 weeks pay as I'm a civil servant and have far better SPL, my husband is taking the 13 weeks unpaid, but still taken a while to sort it all out!
Hope you find clear answers soon!

It's so confusing isn't it! It feels designed to purposefully put people off taking it.

I'm also due in May and we didn't do SPL last time as my husband's company changed their policy recently to be much more generous. I think we've worked it out that for the first two weeks we'll both be on maternity/paternity leave and then start SPL. He'll take 6 weeks and get the occupational pay element from his work, but he's not taking any of the statutory pay so I'll have all of that, plus the occupational pay from my work (though we figured it doesn't really make a difference with shared finances).

I'm finding it very confusing,
I've sent my hr person our plan week by week for her to check if it's right but she doesn't have a clue and has had to bring in an external company to look at it!
My partners company doesn't have anyone in hr and have asked me to let them know what they need to do...
At the moment our plan is for me to be off on maternity for 5 months (3 Months is topped up to full pay the rest basic rate)
My partner will take 2 weeks paternity when the baby is born
After 5 months I'll curtail my maternity leave to start shared parental leave and I'll technically go back to work for 4 weeks but I'll be on annual leave
During those 4 weeks my partner will take 2 weeks holiday then go on shared parental leave at the basic rate for 4.5 months
So in total I'll be off on leave and holiday for 6 months and my partner will be off for 5 months of leave and holiday (+ the initial 2 weeks paternity) and we will have 1 month overlap
That's if I've understood everything probably!

@spukalili definitely check your husbands policy as some companies only top up shared parental leave pay if its taken within the first few months of the babies birth

And yes I believe your smp starts when you go on maternity/give birth whether you like it or not
You can't delay it for 11 weeks
So those 1p1 weeks are included in the 50 weeks you can share with your partner