Shared parental leave

Hi, is anyone able to help me understand how the shared parental leave works please? Or how it worked for you if you’ve used it. I’ve read the government information but still struggling to get my head around how it works and if I’ve got it wrong. My due date is 26/10 so hypothetically, can I take my Mat leave to cover this time and “return to work” for the Christmas holidays on full pay whilst my husband still works and earns full pay and then return to maternity leave after the holidays? And repeat for Easter etc. In theory, seems excellent but don’t know if I’m living in hope 😂 Thankyou x

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Yes, you’ve got it right

My understanding was that as soon as you split the leave, or 'return to work', the occupational pay stops. For example, I had little one on 31st May and was told that if I split my leave for summer holidays it would actually work out as less money overall because I would miss out on some occupational pay. Not sure I really understand it myself which is why I paid a company to do it for me! 😅

I would wait until you've started SMP. If you "return to work", I believe you waiver your occupational maternity pay. So, I am starting maternity leave on 16th September. I will not "return to work" until Feb half term. Returning again for Easter and May half term, with smp in between. Check out the teacherspl website to help.

SPL is the best thing I did! Definitely worth the hassle of working it out. Yes that’s right, you can take up to 3 blocks of leave and don’t have to “share” it with your partner

. @Marissa thank you so much for sharing your breakdown - it’s really helpful. Am I correct in thinking if you do SPL your SMP changes to ShPP but they’re the same in terms of monetary value? And if my policy doesn’t mirror the maternity policy (I’m yet to check) as long as I started the SPL after week 18 then it wouldn’t matter?

Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge - very helpful. Can I ask if anyone has had any resistance from employers when applying/asking for it?

@Carys thank you. I’ll have another look on the website at the packages.

Even if you don't get them to do it for you, there's a 20 minute video on their website that takes you through the process of doing it all yourself! And I did pay the smaller amount for them to check my self completed forms but the video was brilliant and getting them to check was really reassuring 🙂 x

Yes you’re right x

I sent what I aimed to take to my payroll department and asked for a breakdown of doing SPL and not. They were really helpful and I spoke to someone there who advised me how best to do it. I had a spreadsheet with estimated income and have ended up with 9 weeks extra pay. Well worth doing x

I also split my maternity over 52 weeks instead of 38 so I get at least something every month x

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