Shared Parental Leave and Maternity Allowance

Hello - qualified HR here. SPL can only start once the baby has been born, the same as paternity leave, so if you give birth on your due date that that's the same date as you have planned. You also must have served notice on the job centre to end your mat leave 6 weeks early to allow your partner to take that 6 weeks off

@Katie yea that was my understanding. Also I don't jave mat leave as self-employed, just mat allowance

Mat allowance is your mat leave, you won't be working whilst you're in receipt of maternity allowance so you are on maternity leave legally. If you start working then you have to declare that and curtail your maternity leave and notify the job centre to stop your payments. Ask for a copy of their shared parental leave policy, and feel free to send me a message if you have any more questions.

Thanks for the advice Katie but this is the issue. Mat allowance is not leave. Just like mat pay is not mat leave.

Hi Chelsea, another qualified HR here. I head up the London and EU offices at my workplace. Similarly to what Katie mentioned a little earlier, maternity allowance is your maternity leave (i.e, your maternity allowance will kick in the same day that you decide to begin your maternity leave, hence the correlation between these two that cannot be avoided). The minute you start working again that maternity time and pay wil cease immediately. As for paternity pay, an employee must take that paternity leave within 8 weeks of the birth ,but it cannot start before the birth. Employers can allow for other types of holiday before the patenting kicks in such as holiday but that will have to go through the usual annual leave approval process. Hope this helps

Thanks both for taking the time to respond, but the information you're giving doesn't quite match up with the guidance.

@Geti paternity legislation changed this year. For babies born after 6th April 2024 paternity leave can be taken within 52 weeks of childbirth.

@Chelsea I'm not sure what your issue is, but being in receipt of maternity allowance is the taking of maternity leave as per the gov.uk legislation "maternity allowance is a payment you can get when you take time off to have a baby". https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance Being in receipt of maternity pay is also the taking of maternity leave, however, there is eligibility criteria to receive the pay, whereas leave is a statutory right that you take regardless of eligibility. If you're not eligible for SMP then in most circumstances you would claim Maternity Allowance. Perhaps if you explain what it is you're trying to understand I can help?

Also SHPL is a little more complex in terms of eligibility if the birthing parent is self employed, but as you stated your partner is employed he should be entitled to the leave (assuming he meets eligibility criteria) https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/ This website helps to explain things a little less wordy than gov.uk, however, it is a complex area of Family/Statutory Leave

I shared my leave with my husband. I gave him 4 weeks but no pay, so he took 4 weeks unpaid leave ontop of his 2 weeks paternity leave. He took this once the baby had arrived so he had 6 weeks off at the start of my leave, which then meant my leave was cut 4 weeks short ( this was out of my 13 weeks no pay)