had baby on annual leave

[LouLou99]

Had baby when on annual leave trying to use it all up before end fo leave year (or will lose it) before maternity leave begins (baby was prem but gorgeous, doing well...). Does this mean my maternity leave starts from the day after the baby was born, or, as i'm not supposed to be in work anyway, can it start from when it was planned to start? This is worth a lot of money to me in paid leave which i'll lose otherwise. Advice please. HR are rubbish.

starts the day you give birth if not started before

Yep, same happened to me (well, gave birth in school hols - am a teacher). maternity leave started from birth.

It starts from birth but surely you shouldn't lose the leave - won't they add it on to the end of your maternity leave?

seems to me the days of AL from the date of birth would have to be taken at end of your mat leave, or carried over, or paid to you if never taken.

Congratulations loulou!

Maternity leave starts the day your baby is born. You should be able to hopefully carry over the annual leave you haven't been able to take and take it at the end of your maternity leave in a lump. The only complication is you do continue to accrue holiday throughout your maternity leave so depending on how long you're planning to have off, you're going to have a lot of holiday to take. You can only carry over a small amount (if any, look at your policy) and unless you leave employment, your employer can't pay it to you I'm afraid.

Congratulations!

Your maternity leave legally should start the day your baby is born - however, where I work tends to turn a blind eye in this situation

I had this too but my employer just paid me the two weeks leave I was planning on taking. I had to wait for this money until the end of the leave year (which happened to be 4 months later) so that I had actually accurred the leave, but I wasn't out of pocket over it..ask if they will pay you..

Just need to correct myself , it starts the day after your baby is born, not the actual day.

It is the day after the baby was born because, like all statutory payments, they only pay it for full days of absence.
I suppose, technically, you could have been to work in the morning and given birth in the afternoon, but I don't expect it happens very often

Thanks for your help! I'll try to negotiate to be paid for the missed leave or to carry a few days over for longer than would be usual, although i'm not too optimistic