Confused about maternity/parernity/shared leave entitlement

[Thompsc]

Hi all! Trying to wrap my head around how me and my partners mat/pat would work if anybody can help!

i work for one company where i get 16 weeks full pay and then statutory for 26 weeks after that.

my pattern works for a company where he gets 18.5 weeks full pay, then 8 weeks half and then statutory, but he would only want to be taking the 18.5 weeks.

can the first 18.5 weeks be taken as standard mat/pat alongside one another, or would it be classed as shared meaning my maternity leave would be shortened? I read online you can have 50 weeks shared leave, so if we both took 18 weeks would that be 36 weeks used, meaning I’d only have 14 left?

thanks in advance for any help! I can’t wrap my head around the whole thing!

Fairly sure this would be separate. The 'shared' leave is government eligibility and connected too to statutory pay - so your pay will be full minus the statutory element (you'll get the full amount but company won't pay it all themselves).
If partners is full NOT including statutory then it's completely separate and very generous of them! I don't think they could insist you shared parental leave.

However many weeks your partner takes it usually reduces from your stat maternity pay from our experience.
Usually the stat pay is buried in the full pay. Your partner will need to get it clarified though, maybe their company is generous. My DH’s included the start pay element so I lost those weeks by giving them to him as shared parental leave.

Also unless it’s changed or you are not in the uk then I think the maximum stat pay we get is 39 weeks. That’s including the full pay section, it’s just included in the full pay and the employer claims it back.

This is what we’re trying to work out, here is a photo of the actual policy which explains how the payment side of it works. This policy covers both pregnant colleagues and also those like my partner who will be fathers/adopting etc etc.

it does say that after 26 weeks he would be on SMP, but he would never get to that point as he would likely return after 18 weeks

any better idea with this included? 🤣

You get 50 weeks to split between you as you most take a mandatory 2 weeks from the date your baby is born.

You can take 25 each at the same time, or any configuration so long as the total between you both does not exceed 50 weeks (plus your 2 weeks mandatory). You can mix and match but the periods but be in blocks of a week. For example you take 10 weeks, your partner takes 10 weeks after that, then you take 10 weeks after that etc up to the 50 weeks.

Regarding pay, this is then separate and what each other person's employer pays is irrelevant to you, so each company will pay different. If yours is say full pay for first 16 weeks, you'll get full pay for any of the weeks you take off in the first 16 weeks post birth. If your partner's employer say paid full pay for 20 weeks then half pay for a further 10 weeks, he'd get the pay related to the weeks he took off.

Maternity/ paternity and shared parental leave are different.

Paternity leave doesn't impact your maternity leave but shared parental does.

Maternity leave is 52 weeks - but two weeks are required to be taken by you and so only 50 weeks could be shared.

Of those 50 weeks - any weeks taken by your partner would reduce that 'balance' as they're effectively transferred.

However - you both accrue annual leave while you're off on leave so this can be taken at the end too.

But.. what you've shared from your partner's company looks like maternity leave. If they aren't classing it as shared parental leave then this shouldn't impact you. It's very generous if so (but great as I feel like equalising it makes it fair!). Anywhere in that policy does it mention needing any confirmation from you or your employer of how much leave you're taking or reference SPL instead?

It would be unusual for your husbands employer not to be treating this as SPL, and the top up comment on the right hand column leads me to believe it’s clumsily worded and he should check.

My employer has 12 weeks full pay for mums and dads, but dads would be required to take it as shared parental, not just additional leave.

My partners work gives16 weeks fully paid paternity leave. It doesn't need to be shared and does not impact my mat leave or pay. It's unusual but not unheard of