Shared Parental Leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay

If your baby was due, or you adopted a child, on or after 5 April 2015, you and your partner could be able to enjoy shared rights to maternity or paternity leave and pay. This can give you more flexibility and choice when considering your work and caring commitments during your child’s first year.

Fathers will still be entitled to two weeks of paid paternity leave and mothers must take maternity leave for the initial two weeks after birth but there is now an option of ending maternity leave early in exchange for shared parental leave (SPL) for the other parent. Both parents will then have a flexible choice of how to split up the rest of the leave entitlement – up to 50 weeks.

Example: A mother and her partner are both eligible for SPL. The mother ends her maternity leave after 12 weeks, leaving 40 weeks (of the total 52 week entitlement) available for SPL. She takes 30 weeks and her partner takes the other 10 weeks.

If you are eligible for SPL, parents can take leave together or separately and you can use it to book up to three blocks of leave separated by periods of work in the course of the child’s first year, rather than taking it all in one go. You must give your employer at least eight weeks’ notice before taking leave and SPL must be taken between the baby’s birth and first birthday (or within one year of adoption).

Eligibility

Each parent qualifies separately for SPL and statutory shared parental pay (ShPP). To qualify for SPL, you must share care of the child with either your spouse, the child’s other parent or your partner (if they live with you and the child).

To qualify for shared 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 must have worked for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks leading up to the due date and have earned at least £30 a week in 13 of the 66 weeks.

Sometimes only one parent in a couple is eligible to get SPL and ShPP. This means that you can’t share the leave between you. However, if you’re eligible then you can use SPL to book your leave in separate blocks even if your partner can’t share it.

How much will parents be paid?

ShPP is paid at the rate of £139.58 a week or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.This is the same as statutory maternity pay except that during the first six weeks statutory maternity pay is paid at 90 per cent of your average gross weekly earnings with no upper limit.

ShPP is only available for 37 weeks. The remaining 13 weeks of leave entitlement, if taken, is unpaid.

 Vicki Johnston