The new rights allowing UK parents to share leave after the
birth or adoption of their child came into effect last week.If your child is born or placed for adoption after 5 April 2015, you will benefit from the new rules.
Parents can share 50 weeks of leave which 37 weeks is paid
leave at the statutory rate of £139.58 per week as long as the parents meet the
eligibility criteria.
Parents can share leave following the birth or adoption of
their child. They can take leave in
their child’s first year at different times or double up by taking the leave at
the same time.
Does this change
regular maternity and paternity leave?
No. Fathers are still
entitled to take two weeks paid paternity leave.
Mothers maternity still exist under maternity rules and the
mother can take ordinary and additional maternity leave.
Mothers must still take the initial two weeks after birth,
but they can exchange their maternity leave for shared parental leave.
Both parents have the choice of how to split the rest of the
leave entitlement between them and have up to 50 weeks leave.
For example, if a mother ends her maternity leave after 10
weeks following the child’s birth, that leaves 42 weeks of leave, as the mother
has to take the first two weeks after the child has been born. The mother chooses to take 30 weeks and her
partner can choose to take the other 12 weeks.
Alternatively, both parents can choose to take the 21 weeks of leave
together or split the 42 weeks and take the leave equally or at separate times.
Can parents take
leave when they want?
Shared parental leave does not have to be taken all in one
go which is different to the current maternity and paternity leave rules.
A parent can book up to three blocks of leave in the course
of the child’s first year. They must
give their employer at least 8 weeks’ notice before taking leave.
It is up to the employer to agree to shorter blocks of
leave, of just a week or more, but that is up to the employer.
The mother can take her leave as shared parental leave which
will allow her more flexibility rather than take it as maternity leave – even
if the father does not take any parental leave.
A mother can inform her employer before her baby is born that
she doesn’t plan to use all of her 52 weeks’ maternity leave and wants to
convert some of it into shared parental leave.
The father could then use this leave to help out in the first few weeks
after birth while she is still on maternity leave.
Why aren’t all
parents eligible?
To take shared parental leave, one parent must have been an
employee with at least 26 weeks of service with the same employer by the end of
the 15th week before the baby is due, or when matched with an
adopted child.
The other parent must have worked for at least 26 weeks in
the 66 weeks leading up to the due date and have earned at least £30 per week
in 13 of the 66 weeks.
There are exemptions to this rule. For example, self-employed and a parent not
in work at the time of the birth can still qualify.
How much will parents
be paid?
Shared parental leave is £139.58 a week or 90% of an
employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
This is the same as maternity pay, except during the first 6
weeks statutory maternity pay amounts to 90% of the employee’s normally earns
and there is no maximum.
Shared parental pay is only given for 37 weeks. The remaining 13 weeks of leave if taken is
unpaid.