Shared Parental Leave don't make the mistake I did
Discussion
Shared parental leave (SPL) came into force April 2015 and it appears its not that widely known about or the finer detail of it, particular in how new fathers can use it. I only found out about it after the birth and in a nut shell I lost the opportunity to have 10 weeks off on full pay.
A lot depends on your employers maternity deal for the ladies but in my case if I was the pregnant one I would of got 6 months full pay, now as a result of SPL as a father you could use some of partners 52 weeks as your maternity leave and in my case if I had taken it in the first 6 months of the birth I would of got full pay. In my case my partner is going back to work in week 39 leaving 10 weeks that I could of used at the same time as her, if I had used these 10 weeks within the first 6 months I would of been fully paid, it wouldn't impact partners SMP which is all she got.
Kicking myself now, it does take a bit of forward planning before the birth as there are deadlines etc you need to let the employer know by, I only found out about SPL by chance when I read it in the paper that there was low take up on it.
A lot depends on your employers maternity deal for the ladies but in my case if I was the pregnant one I would of got 6 months full pay, now as a result of SPL as a father you could use some of partners 52 weeks as your maternity leave and in my case if I had taken it in the first 6 months of the birth I would of got full pay. In my case my partner is going back to work in week 39 leaving 10 weeks that I could of used at the same time as her, if I had used these 10 weeks within the first 6 months I would of been fully paid, it wouldn't impact partners SMP which is all she got.
Kicking myself now, it does take a bit of forward planning before the birth as there are deadlines etc you need to let the employer know by, I only found out about SPL by chance when I read it in the paper that there was low take up on it.
Edited by PostHeads123 on Thursday 29th September 15:34
edc said:
Statutory shared parental leave is at the statutory rates.
Yes but for me my employer would of paid me my full salary as long as I had taken it in the first 6 months, 6 months full pay is what the offer female staff so men get the same. I could still take leave after the 39 weeks but just 0 SMP as finished by theb and 0 employer pay.
I was initially told I could not take the time off at the same time as my partner, but then HR finally said I could do that but by that point it was too late for me to take it and get full paid. My misses only got SMP and nothing from her employer I'm not sure tbh if her SMP would of stopped for the period I could of been off on full pay for though. Fathers get 2 weeks paid leave regardless now so I did take that but they seem to make such a big deal of the 2 weeks being such a good deal that you end up thinking that's all you can take. Anyway equal right for men and all that 
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