Shared parental pay, pls help!

[totallycluelessmama]

Hi MN,

I hadn't been with my employer long enough so had only qualified for maternity allowance pay for 39weeks and then additional leave up until 52weeks. (Which wouldnt be paid)

My partner and I have been discussing shared parental leave.

I'm obviously silly because the gov website confuses me. What I would like to know is -

Can I take 39weeks of MA and then my partner takes the last 13 weeks of my leave?

Does he get paid for this? If I were to take leave uptil 52 weeks I know I wouldnt get paid for the last 13 but if we share would he?

Any advice, experience, help pls anyone?

Thankyou!

Any weeks of SMP or MA taken by the mother are deducted from the total number of weeks of shared parental pay available to the partner. The max available is 39 weeks so if you receive 39 weeks of MA then your partner wouldn't be eligible for any ShPP as all the weeks have been used up. If you returned to work after 30 weeks MA then your partner could receive 9 weeks ShPP (just an example, not a suggestion!)

You can give the last 13 weeks leave to your partner but this would be unpaid for him too due to the above.

You can also both be off together, so if you cut your leave to 39 weeks then your partner could use the remaining 13 weeks during weeks 27-39 instead of 40-52 to be off at the same time, but for your partner to receive ShPP you'd have to curtail your MA. If you're receiving full rate MA then it works out the same amount anyway.

Any additional pay your partner may receive would be dependent on his employer's policy.