Maternity leave uk

Hello! Lost and confused FTM here. I’m due December 20th and the end of term is also December 20th. I was hoping to work right until my due date to be paid for the holiday. However, am I right in thinking I would have to return to school in Jan to be paid for the Christmas break? When would be best to take my Maternity leave and still maximise my full salary? Thanks!
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I might be wrong but if you go on maternity on the 20th you won’t get paid for the Christmas holidays 2024. However in 2025 you can go back to work on the first day of the Christmas holidays and then be paid for them. I’m due 5th January which is when my school starts again after the holidays so I’ll go on maternity then, so I will get paid for the Christmas holidays 2024. I hope that makes sense!

You won't be able to be paid for the Xmas holidays as you will be on maternity which will start on your due date or before if you choose to start it before. When you return to work, if you are wanting to return after the whole year, you could return on the day before the 2025 Xmas holidays or the first day of the holidays and get paid for them.

As others said you will get paid till a maximum of your due date so wouldnt get paid for school holidays. Mine was a little different as my LO came 7weeks early (during the holidays) so mine started the date we should have gone back to school (I gained 3 days of the school holiday) although I would have preferred full term and less stress.

Latest you can start maternity leave is due date, though I've read a few on here say you can start after due date on the day baby is born if they're late - I'm not sure how you'd go about that though (my LG came 4 days (and 2 parents evenings) before I was due to go off.) You can utilise shared parental leave though and 'return to work' for the Easter holidays, summer holidays and either may or October half term on full pay. Then return to work the first day of Christmas holidays next year to be paid those, if you plan on taking the full year.

Hey your maternity is triggered as soon as baby is born. I was due 6th Jan which was the day the schools went back… I had baby 29th December and they took a week pay off me and started my maternity from that date haha x

That just seems so cheeky! So I’m better off just taking maternity the start of December then pushing through?

Definitely look into this though as means you can get full pay during the other holidays: https://www.teachersspl.co.uk

Just not the Xmas one but maybe feb, Easter, May

My partner has just started a new job so he’s not entitled to any paternity leave, shared or otherwise :(

SPL doesn’t really have anything to do with your partners job. You can still use it to get full pay as the other people have said. You’re just making yourself “available” to work during the school holidays but of course you’re not going to work as schools closed. I’m 10 weeks into maternity pay but currently getting full pay during the 6 weeks thanks to SPL. I didn’t have to disclose my husbands job details when I completed the forms etc

That’s ace! Thank you for the heads up. I thought we both needed to be eligible

Unfortunately the above is incorrect. Even though your other half doesn’t have to take the leave, unfortunately you both do have to be entitled to maternity leave/ paternity leave. On the forms, your partner has to complete their employer details for it all to be checked. I’m currently on shared parent leave myself so have not long gone through the process x

My HR manager filled my forms in for me and at no point did anyone ask my husbands employment info x

I think the best thing you can do is to look in the GOV website which outlines the eligibility criteria. It does say that both parents need to be eligible. I used SSPL for teachers website to complete my forms & even though my partner wasn’t taking any leave, they did need his details. https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/eligibility-for-birth-parents

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