Does anyone work FT but make regular use of unpaid parental leave?

[letsallbemermaids]

Considering returning to work after maternity leave full time or nearly full time but actually making use of unpaid parental leave. I've got two children and I've never used it before so I think I should have 36 weeks available (9 years at a rate of 4 weeks a year). If you do this, what sort of pattern do you do? Long summer holiday? Just more frequent weeks off?

Sounds a little suspect to me me but who knows.

I'm very very surprised you've not used it for child sickness days that is very unusual.

You're running the risk of burning through it and then not having any for times when they are really sick, broken something, childcare issues etc etc it's very risky.

@Rioja81

How does it work though when you have 2 children? 4 wks per year per child doesn't equate to 8 wks if you have 2 kids?

Yes so you would use it up more quickly than if you took eg 2 weeks per child per year which is what I was suggesting. You don't have to take it but if you take it you're limited to 4 weeks per child per year. You could take 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks... 1 week for one child, 4 for another, etc.

@MutteringDarkly

Ways I've known it to be used:

• parent of disabled child used it to for hospital appointments as there were a lot of different specialisms involved (disabled children mean you can take it in single days rather than week blocks, for precisely this reason)
• father took several weeks the summer before his child started school, so he could spend time with child while their time was still flexible
• parent to teen took a week a month, when the teen was struggling with a particular issue
• single parents use it all the time in planned ways to cover parts of school holidays

As it's unpaid, if you switch employers I genuinely cannot see how the info about how much you've taken is ever passed on to the new employer. Just mentioning that in case anyone has worries about the 18 week limit

HMRC live reporting.

I take a day every 2 or 3 weeks. This is so I am not facing a 5 day week every week. Alternatively you could take a few weeks in the summer, and then use annual leave whenever you felt you needed a day.

Especially with covid about... And it's not going anywhere soon.

Well I'm pleased to be wrong 😁
This could be very useful for me, a weeks wages is probably the same as a weeks holiday club so I will keep it in mind!

@TuckMyWin

The way you are proposing to use it is very normal in Ireland, I’m told, where they can use 1 day at a time. A colleague tells me people regularly go back 4 days on 5 days pay for a period of time. I’m not sure how it will work with using it in week blocks though.

I know what you mean about after school activities. I have been working 4 days since I went back to work after my second. Now he’s starting school I’m planning to go back full time but start early and finish around 4 whenever possible. I have a job that allows me this flexibility and a husband whose job allows him to pick up the slack on days it doesn’t work out (meetings, unplanned work etc). I haven’t done it yet, so can’t attest to the reality, but the theory seems good to me!!

You can’t get 5 days pay if one of those days is unpaid parental leave.

Very common for women to use their accrued annual leave to shorten their weeks when they return (is using paid leave).

@ODFOD21

Sounds a little suspect to me me but who knows.

I'm very very surprised you've not used it for child sickness days that is very unusual.

You're running the risk of burning through it and then not having any for times when they are really sick, broken something, childcare issues etc etc it's very risky.

But you can’t use it for those reasons. It has to be requested in advance, in week blocks. We’re not talking about emergency dependents leave. This is different, you can read about it here:

www.gov.uk/parental-leave

“ Eligible employees can take unpaid parental leave to look after their child’s welfare, for example to:

spend more time with their children
look at new schools
settle children into new childcare arrangements
spend more time with family, such as visiting grandparents”

I think people are getting 2 separate things confused:

1/ Parental leave - which employees have a statutory right to have, this is the 18 weeks per child the OP is asking about.

2/ Reasonable amount of time off to deal with emergency situations involving a dependent (some employers call this emergency or dependent leave).

I'm an HR manager and see v few requests for 1/ parental leave, I think lots of people don't know it exists or can't always afford to take it.

You don’t get 4 weeks per child. Every parent has a right to take up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave for each child or adopted child between birth and their 18th birthday.

Unless the child is disabled, leave must be taken in week long blocks with a maximum of 4 weeks in any given year. It has to be booked in advance so is not for emergencies.

Here’s the info from the gov.uk site:

Entitlement

Parental leave is unpaid. You’re entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child, up to their 18th birthday.

The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise).

You must take parental leave as whole weeks (eg 1 week or 2 weeks) rather than individual days, unless your employer agrees otherwise or if your child is disabled. You don’t have to take all the leave at once.

A ‘week’ equals the length of time an employee normally works over 7 days.

www.gov.uk/parental-leave

Surely the maximum of four weeks is for if you have 5+ children. People saying it dmwouldnt be possible if it didn't accrue.

@NavigatingAdolescence yes of course you’re right 😂 Sorry, that was me explaining it badly. I meant being employed/contracted for 5 days, but working 4. No idea, not in Ireland myself. Just quoting a colleague who is who was surprised that I was actually contracted 4 days and not just using parental leave for the 5th day, as she told me was very normal in Ireland. She may have been talking nonsense of course.

My point, badly made, was, the way the OP proposes to use it to effectively achieve part time working on a full time contract would be more achievable if you could take single days. I’m not sure the effect will be the same with week blocks.

I have to give more notice to use unpaid parental leave than I do for annual leave (such is our HR policies); so I use unpaid parental leave for my son's various appointments (disabled) and then use annual leave if he is off sick and needing mummy attention.

@ODFOD21

Sounds a little suspect to me me but who knows.

I'm very very surprised you've not used it for child sickness days that is very unusual.

You're running the risk of burning through it and then not having any for times when they are really sick, broken something, childcare issues etc etc it's very risky.

You are talking about a different type of leave.

@StealthPolarBear

Surely the maximum of four weeks is for if you have 5+ children. People saying it dmwouldnt be possible if it didn't accrue.

It's a maximum of 4 weeks per year regardless of how many children you have. In fact if you have 5 children you'd get 5 x 18 weeks parental leave available to you

Yes, me and my colleagues use it for the school holidays.

But if you are not in work for 4 weeks for one of your children, and then claim another 4 wks for another child and so on, does that mean you might be off for say 16 weeks of a year if you had 4 children?

[quote TuckMyWin]@NavigatingAdolescence yes of course you’re right 😂 Sorry, that was me explaining it badly. I meant being employed/contracted for 5 days, but working 4. No idea, not in Ireland myself. Just quoting a colleague who is who was surprised that I was actually contracted 4 days and not just using parental leave for the 5th day, as she told me was very normal in Ireland. She may have been talking nonsense of course.

My point, badly made, was, the way the OP proposes to use it to effectively achieve part time working on a full time contract would be more achievable if you could take single days. I’m not sure the effect will be the same with week blocks.[/quote]
I suppose my question is:

Is it better for my career / children if

I work full time but take an extra 4 weeks of leave a year

Or

I work 4 days per week?

I reckon there are 260 working days a year. If I take off my leave entitlement that leaves 219 days. If I take off another 28 days (2 weeks unpaid parental leave per child) that's 191 days. If I take off another week unpaid parental leave per child that's 177 days.

If I work 4 days a week then that's 208 working days. If I take off 80% of my leave entitlement (say, 32 days) then that leaves 176 days.

Just trying to weigh up whether it's better to be available the whole working week but have more holidays from work or if being there 4 days pw is better - for my children and my career.

The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise).

@Rioja81

But if you are not in work for 4 weeks for one of your children, and then claim another 4 wks for another child and so on, does that mean you might be off for say 16 weeks of a year if you had 4 children?

No.

Why don't you do both? Arrange compressed hours or PT with your employer and take a week or two parental leave?

I work in the third sector so part time work is very common.

My DH and I have often thought about taking parental leave but haven't yet (DS almost 15 and DD is 11) - we just can't afford to take the time off as unpaid leave.

I keep hoping we'll save up and then take 2 weeks paid, 4 weeks unpaid and do something special one summer. Maybe we still have time?

Mind blown that I didn’t even know this was a thing!

The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise).

So you could take 4 weeks per child per year subject to the total 18 week cap per child. And this is per parent too.

So you could take 8 wks off for 2 dc per yr? If loads of people did that wouldn't companies need to employ people to fill the gaps.

I've just taken unpaid parental leave this year for the first time. I work part time. it was very straightforward. I did it because (a) I wanted more time off to spend with family who we haven't seen for over 18 months because of Covid and (b) we normally rely on holiday clubs and there was much less available / running this year because of Covid.
I think I will do it every year tbh. It's worth the financial sacrifice as we would be spending lots on holiday activities anyway and this way we have more quality time as a family.