Shared parental leave enhanced pay

[Dfin54543]

Hello, husband here.

I work for the civil service which offer enhance maternity pay full pay for the first six months. My wife works with the NHS so she’s with a different employer.

If we both take first six months off as shared parental leave, would my employer with the civil service enhanced maternity pay extend to Shared Parental Pay if I take SPL?

I’m not with the civil service but you need to check the entitlement for shared parental and not maternity leave.

This, and you also aren’t both entitled to 6 months pay, it’s a share of the total. So you get 52 weeks off TOTAL, 39 weeks pay TOTAL.

24 weeks full pay for parental pay (this only leaves 13 weeks of pay).

Check the guidance and/or with HR OP, although being off for 6 months is technically sharing a years entitlement, pretty sure it can't be taken at the same time. Parental leave doesn't have to be taken in one chunk though, I'd look into the detail and then figure it out.

You can take off at the same time.

But yes, good point to stress re sharing leave. If OP takes 6 months, then his wife’s maternity leave is limited to just 6 months and she is not entitled to any more leave.

Pay point depends on whether it’s enhanced by employer.

If it’s statutory only, then it needs to be split.

If it’s enhanced, then it’s up to employer.

I had 6 months full pay when I was on maternity and my husband was also offered 6 months shared parental at full pay.

Thanks for your responses. We are aware that my wife is giving up the remaining six months to give it to me. She would rather I support her full-time for the first six months than for me to be giving her less support for 12 months.

We can only afford this arrangement if I can still be paid while I’m on parental leave.

I believe one of my male colleague was able to take two months off full-time during the first two months of maternity leave fully paid. I have not asked him yet, as my wife is at an early stage of pregnancy.

I’ve also asked HR regarding shared parental leave pay but waiting for a response.

You wouldn’t both be able to get 26 weeks (6 months) of pay, CS “top up” the maternity to enhanced so for you to claim 26 weeks your wife would only be entitled to 13 weeks of pay, and the same in reverse, if she takes 26 weeks of pay you can only have 13.

This is correct.

The way to think about it is 52 weeks leave be that maternity, shared parental, adoption etc. Plus two weeks paternity leave.

39 weeks of which are paid SMP/SAP/ShPP. Plus 2 weeks SPP.

The mother must take at least the first two weeks after giving birth. The partner gets two weeks paternity leave. Normally the two weeks are the same.

One benefit of ShPL is both partners get 20 days SPLIT I.e. 40 days jointly.

With SPL each parent can take leave in 3 blocks.

An option is the Mother takes 26 weeks paid leave but after the 2 mandatory weeks converts to SPL. The Mother gives up the remaining 13 weeks paid and splits the 13 weeks unpaid I.e. 6 and 7 weeks. During the 6 or 7 weeks unpaid they can work SPLIT days.

The partner takes the two weeks paternity leave at the start. They then get 13 weeks paid (so 15 weeks paid) plus 6 or 7 weeks unpaid. Again working SPLIT days.

During the unpaid weeks aim to work 2 split days. This is feasible as the other partner is at home so no child care costs. Plus it allows each parent 1 on 1 time with their DC.

Break the paid into blocks and intersperse with blocks of unpaid where each partner works some SPLIT days. If you work it right so in some pay periods you get only unpaid leave plus paid SPLIT days you should get a tax rebate maximising income.

Added to this you both accrue annual leave and this can be used to extend paid leave.

My advice draw a table with the weeks in the first column, Mothers leave and pay in the next two columns and Partners leave and pay in columns 4 and 5. Then both run it past your HR.

How did you get on with your employer? I’m in a similar situation atm

Mother has to take first 2 weeks so you'd share 50 weeks.

This is how I understand the policy, but for those 13 weeks would I get full pay if my org gives 26 full pay, assuming the mother's org also gives 26 weeks full pay?

@curiouscat55 It will depend on your organisations policy. For example if both partners work for the Civil Service the total is 26 weeks full pay combined.
Ask your HR/payroll and they will tell you.

Indeed. I'm civil service and mother is NHS. Unfortunately my guidance is extremely unclear and HR take forever to respond. My CS org just state they won't pay more than 26 weeks which they won't in this situation and all the examples just reduce mat leave from my allowance, so by that it works that I would get full pay. However the examples are like: mother stops mat leave after 2 weeks, 26-2, and father takes 10 weeks etc. So doesn't fully explore the options.

They cannot provide examples of every combination.

If you say what you want to do I am happy to help you understand the options.

Of course, appreciate the help.

My partner (mother - NHS) has taken 2 weeks mat, 6 weeks full and now into 18 weeks half. I, civil service, plan to take the remaining 13 weeks of ShPP (I have 27 weeks full pay). That's pretty much it, seems simple but orgs seem incredibly bad at stating their policies. From what I understand I would receive full pay but it's hard to confirm. Thanks

@curiouscat55 what you need to do is a table with 7 columns headed as follows:

• weeks 1 to 52
• partners SML/ShPL
• partners SMP/OMP/ShPP/OShPP
• your Paternity Leave/ShPL
• your paternity pay/ShPP/OShPP

Fill that in apportioning out the 52 weeks SML/ShPL and your paternity leave. Then mark in where you and your partner expect only SMP or ShPP and where you expect SMP & OMP or ShPP/OShPP and paternity pay. I would also suggest you add in KIT and SPLIT days.

Email this to your head of payroll and ask them to confirm it is correct that you will get OShPP for 5he weeks indicated.

If your partner takes 26 weeks SMP the maximum OShPP you can get is 13 weeks. This is because occupational pay “tops” up statutory pay which is limited to 39 weeks.

Be aware because you and your partner are both public sector there may be a joint limit of 26 weeks occupational because it is funded from the public purse. I confess to being a little out of date.

Finally, the SPL regulations are extremely complex and that makes policies and procedures difficult to write.