Enhanced pay and SMP

[Raspberry06]

Hello

My son gets 14 weeks full pay paternity leave and his wife gets 10 weeks full pay for maternity leave.

They ideally wanted to take it as below:

Mum - 10 weeks full pay followed by SMP until week 38
Dad - 14 weeks full pay from week 38

The mums' employer said they can't do this and they have to take the combined 24 weeks during the 39 week period which means mum then gets 15 weeks SMP.

Can I ask if we have gotten it wrong please because dieally they wanted to not be at home at the same time during the first 12 months and to split it between them?

Many thanks

It depends on what exactly the employer has said if enhanced, it can be contractual. But with shared parental pay if mum takes the full 39 weeks of pay then there’s nothing “left” to share pay wise after week 39. Maybe there is a mix up between leave and pay? As you can share up to 50 weeks of leave but only up to 39 weeks of pay with Shared Parental Pay x

The enhanced/full pay will include SMP for their employer - so the employer pays a bit less, and then the rest is topped up by SMP to reach the full amount.

SMP is only paid until 39 weeks. Therefore, neither your son or daughter in law can be paid after 39 weeks - it will need to be unpaid leave (as is for everyone else).

You could do 10 weeks full pay until week 24 (14 weeks before 38 weeks), and then the 14 weeks at 25-39 weeks - but this means the wife has to return to work at 24 weeks.

There is only 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay that can be shared (2 weeks need to be taken by the mother after birth by law)

If she takes all her paid leave then her dh would not have paid leave available to him.

She'd need to give up 14 weeks of leave and pay in order for him to be able to take his full entitlement.

I think you need to get clarity on whether your son has asked for paternity leave or parental leave.

Paternity leave should not be impacted by the mother going on maternity leave.
Parental leave is usually split between parents and can be taken once the mother has returned to work, or she can 'share' SMP with the partner.

Id try get copies of the contractual agreements and policies for both to work it out.

@Goldpanther I am assuming it's shared parental leave and pay. The dh can be off at the same time or different time from his wife. She needs to give binding notice to give up part of her maternity leave/pay in order to free up leave and pay for her dh. In order for him to have a paid portion of leave would mean her forfeiting some of her paid portion of leave and his employer may also offset his pay against any pay his wife has had.

It sounds complicated and no wonder a lot of people don't take advantage of it.