Holiday and mat leave?

[KellyJellyfish]

11 weeks pregnant with my first and no idea how accrued holiday works with mat leave.

I have extra holiday this year (carried over from last year), so 31 days total. My company is a bit odd, rather than working Jan 1st - Dec 31st, our year runs July 1st - Jun 30th, that means I have a full 31 days right now. Due date is end of Jan.

Can I carry over a good chunk of that holiday into 2025? I don’t want to lose it, and I doubt I’ll be able to take a month’s worth of holiday between now and New Year’s Eve, plus it will be much more useful to use it when baby is here.

anyone know how it works? Couldn’t find anything about it in office maternity policy, and don’t want to ask HR as it’s early so haven’t told work about pregnancy yet.

Hi, this is advice from citizens advice, they only have to allow statutory minimum carry forward. So if your company gives more then it would depend on their policy whether you can carry forward the difference between stat and contractual. It would be unusual a company wouldn't allow contractual to be carried forward. I work in HR and have done for 20 years not come across a company yet that would cap it, but that doesn't mean there isn't some out there lol. Also you accrue bank holidays while you are off too so remember to factor those in. X

Thanks, I think ours is 25, but I’ve got 32 because if extra days, I’ll probably book a couple of weeks off over Xmas, but if I could carry at least 21 over that would be great

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/maternity-and-parental-rights/check-your-maternity-and-parental-rights/rights-while-pregnant-or-on-maternity-leave/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/#:~:text=Holiday,into%20your%20next%20holiday%20year.

Just realised I forgot to paste the link lol x

The policy at where I am at the moment is that you need to take everything accrued up to the point of going on leave (so calculate what it would work out as pro rata up to the date you think you'll go on leave, plus the extra you carried over from last year), and then you accrue the rest (plus bank hols) as you would do normally to use when you return.

They do make exceptions if you're in a role/on a project that really needs you around as much as possible and your manager is happy for you to carry over extra, but it has to then be used within the first few months of returning.

Another option would be to use a day per week in the lead up when you might be particularly tired.

Every company is different but I'd be amazed if they let you carry over 25 into next year because then next year you would practically have double the holiday allowance xx

Sorry 21!

You can also use some right before your due date. I finished work at 37 weeks but didn't start mat leave for 2.5 weeks. You would need to check that you didn't lose the leave if your baby came early and mat leave started automatically.

At my work you could carry over as much as you liked. My SIL had to have used up the portion already accrued, so if she was 6m into the AL year, she had to have taken 50% of her leave.

It really depends on your work, but mine would want you to take most of it before and then let you carry over 10 or so days. You could use leave instead of mat leave before the baby comes to use some up?

Usually if you carry it over you have to take it at the end of mat leave, before you go back, in a chunk. That can be handy to reduce the time on low/no income. You won't be able to use it to double your holidays in your first year back. But just email HR to ask