Would this be classed as maternity pay or paternity pay in this situation?

[Kevinh1287]

So because of our unborn baby being placed on a child protection plan due to my partner having mental health problems the children services aren't allowing my partner to be main carer which means they want me to give up my job and want be to be main carer if we want our baby to come home so I've went ahead with it all but I'm still waiting to hear back from my work about what's happening with my pay etc, just now am entitled to 4 weeks paternity that's my works policy but they are looking into it to see if they should be giving me longer term pay.

I feel like this should be treated very differently in my opinion and I should be getting paid maternity pay because this isn't my fault so I shouldn't need to lose my job over this which if I'm only entitled to 4 weeks paternity after 4 weeks I'm basically done and will need to leave and will be out of a job and will need to claim benefits.

The mother could take the 2 weeks compulsory maternity leave and you take 2 weeks paternity leave. Then mother curtails maternity leave allowing you to take the remaining 50 weeks shared parental leave.

If the mother is working she is entitled to transfer her mat leave to you as "shared parental leave". Whether you get paid more than SMP is up to your employer though

If the mother is not working then unfortunately there is no maternity leave to transfer but some workplaces would give you paternity leave in your own right. It's at their discretion.

Sorry this sounds rubbish for you all

Search "shared parental leave " on gov.uk

Technically the mother doesn’t need to be working at the dafe of birth for you to be entitled to shared parental leave, the mother needs to have been working for at least 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the week the baby’s due (the 26 weeks do not need to be in a row) and she must have earned at least £390 in total across any 13 of the 66 weeks.

It would be paternity, your partners work/earnings may mean you are entitled to shared parental leave, but in this case she would need to agree to give up some of her maternity leave/pay which may be unlikely following a relationship breakdown.

Social services are keen to have children staying with a parent and will often go to great lengths to ensure they do so. I would recommend talking to them about this and they can help you figure out your options like benefits etc. Would you be willing to give up your job, or able to take a career break, if you got benefits?