earliest date to start maternity leave

[tonythetyger]

I know that you can't usually start mat leave untill 11 weeks before your due date, however I'm hopefully expecting twins and depending on whether they have their own placentas or our sharing (which I'll find out in a few days time) the actual delivery will either be 37 weeks or "lucky to get to 35". Does this affect when I can start my maternity leave or am I bound by a due date which is a minimum of 3 weeks past the latest date they'll be here?

Congratulations :-) Having twins is fab :-) Unfortunately though, a twin pregnancy is treated exactly the same as a singleton pregnancy for all pregnancy and maternity stuff. Only thing that's sort of doubled is that you get Child Benefit if both children (though second child gets less!). Sorry that this might mess with your plans, but the pregnancy and maternity legals are all about you, and there is only one of you :-)

Can't you get you mat leave envoked early due to illness? Don't know when though.

It's all about your due date I'm afraid. If you start at the earliest that would still give you 6 weeks off before the babies arrive if they come at 35 weeks. If you get to 27/28 weeks pregnant and feel you can't stay any longer you should have plenty of holiday you can use.

Alternatively you can get signed off sick if you can't work earlier than that. How pregnant are you at the moment - do you have reason to think you're going to struggle to make it to 27/28 weeks while working? Have you thought about asking to reduce your hours or working pattern, or work from home a bit to make things easier?

Drat. I'm nearly 12 weeks and I wanted to tell work quite soon as it's already a strain in various ways and also let them know when I'd want to start my mat leave. I had wanted to take off either from 30 or 28 weeks as I'm quite concerned about the risk of premature babies. I guess I'll see what I can negotiate.

What's the problem though? You shouldn't need to negotiate surely? Just notify them you will be starting mat leave at 29 weeks. If you want to go earlier ask to take holiday, but in the unlikely event they don't approve the holiday you will still be starting at 29 weeks anyway.

payment mainly and I'm not sure how much holiday I'll have at that point of the year.

What do you mean payment? You can start maternity leave any time from 29 weeks and your statutory maternity pay runs for 39 weeks from the date you start maternity leave. So whether you could start early due to having twins (which, as others have said, unfortunately you can't) doesn't affect the money.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding.

If I want to start prior to 29 weeks then what happens to the money? I'm assuming it would first be holiday and then either unpaid or sick. Is that right?

If you want to stop prior to 29 weeks you will either need to take holiday or be signed off sick, yes. Sick leave obviously can't be planned in advance in the same way, but might be relevant if, say, you plan to go to 29/30 and find you can't cope.

I thought from your last message that you wanted to go off some time between 28 and 30 weeks, so 29 weeks wasn't far off your earliest planned start date? Could you maybe save a week of holiday?

I guess I'll have to.

What's the problem tony? You don't sound happy about using a week's holiday? I would have thought that would be perfect especially if pay is a concern for you - the longer you are on holiday on full pay rather than on mat leave the better. And if you want to start at 28 - 30 weeks as you say, the earliest start date is absolutely fine for you.

I feel as though I must be missing something. From your OP it sounded as though the 29 weeks earliest date was nowhere near early enough for you, but it's fine.

I would also advise leaving these descisions as late as you can. You might cope fine with the pregnancy, and the later you go off, the more time you get with the babies. I worked to 36+3 with my non-identicals, delivering at 38+1 by planned section. I booked AL to run to my EDD, (which I didn't reach), so my Mat Leave kicked in on section day and my few remaining holiday days have been carried over to after Mat Leave. This way I get as long as possible with my babies :-)

I already have a ds who is 4 and miscarried my last pg so am very nervous of anything wrong. In addition to the twins I am automatically high risk because I have type 1 diabetes. So far I have found this pg much worse than either of the previous 2 and I am working less hours in a less stressful job than when I was expecting ds. I took maternity leave for him at 35 weeks because I knew I was being induced at just before 39 weeks and I was ready to collapse at that point. I guess I'm just really concerned about the risks of premature babies and would like to do everything possible to counteract that and if lots of time off work is what it takes then so be it.

I don't really feel I can leave the decision right up to the end as you have to say relatively early when you want to take maternity leave and also it's not fair on my colleagues if I say I'm working till a certain date and then have to bale out.

I guess I'll sort it out in my head soon enough. Thanks for your comments.

Oh I understand why you want to leave as early as possible, of course.

I was just confused because it sounded from your OP as though you wanted to leave earlier than the usual earliest date of 29 weeks, but then later you said actually you want to leave at 28-30 weeks. On that basis you don't in fact need any provision to have an earlier start date because of the expected early arrival of your babies anyway.

Don't worry, I just wondered if I was missing something that's all!