Not the complete story but a little taster of Shared Parental Leave!
Shared Parental Leave
The regulations introducing Shared Parental Leave came into force on 1 December 2014. The option to use the new Shared Parental Leave rights will apply for parents who meet the eligibility criteria, where a baby is due to be born on or after 5th April 2015, or for children who are placed for adoption on or after that date. Employers could start to receive notices of eligibility and the intention to take Shared Parental Leave from qualifying employees from January 2015.
Key points
Employed mothers will continue to be entitled to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave and 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance.
If they choose to do so, an eligible mother can end her maternity leave early and, with her partner or the child’s father, opt for Shared Parental Leave instead of Maternity Leave. If they both meet the qualifying requirements, they will need to decide how they want to divide their Shared Parental Leave and Pay entitlement.
Paid Paternity Leave of two weeks will continue to be available to fathers and a mother’s or adopter’s partner, however Additional Paternity Leave will be removed and Shared Parental Leave will replace it.
Adopters will have the same rights as other parents to Shared Parental leave and pay.
Shared Parental Leave is designed to give parents more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year following birth or adoption. Parents will be able to share a pot of leave, and can decide to be off work at the same time and/or take it in turns to have periods of leave to look after the child.
Who is eligible for Shared Parental Leave (SPL)?
To qualify, the mother or adopter must be entitled to, and have given notice to curtail their, maternity or adoption entitlements and must share the main responsibility for caring for the child with the child’s father or their partner. For a parent to be eligible to take Shared Parental Leave they must be an employee and they must pass the continuity of employment test. In turn, the other parent in the family must meet the employment and earnings test.
- Continuity of employment test: the person must have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the week in which the child is due (or at the week in which an adopter was notified of having been matched with a child or adoption) and is still employed in the first week that Shared Parental Leave is to be taken.
- Employment and earnings test: the person must have worked for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks leading up to the due date and have earned above the maternity allowance threshold of £30 week in 13 of the 66 weeks.
Taking Shared Parental Leave
It will be for the mother or adopter to decide whether to just use their maternity or adoption entitlement or use Shared Parental Leave at some point. However, a mother or adopter does not have to have actually ended their maternity or adoption entitlements for Shared Parental Leave to start for their partner. Provided the mother or adopter has given advance notice reducing their maternity or adoption entitlements their partner can start to take Shared Parental Leave. This means their partner could begin to take Shared Parental Leave while the mother or adopter is still on maternity or adoption leave.
Shared Parental Leave may be taken at any time within the period which begins on the date the child is born/date of the placement and ends 52 weeks after that date. If an employee wishes to take Shared Parental Leave they must provide their employer with a notice of entitlement to take Shared Parental Leave. The notice must be given at least eight weeks before the start of a period of Shared Parental Leave and must include:
- How much leave is available
- How much leave they are entitled to take
- How much leave the parent is intending to take
- How they expect to take it.
An employee is entitled to submit three separate notices to book leave. Leave must be taken in complete weeks and may be taken either in a continuous period, which an employer cannot refuse, or in a discontinuous period, which the employer can refuse. If a request for discontinuous leave is refused then the total amount of leave requested in the notice will automatically become a continuous block unless it is withdrawn.
Shared Parental Pay
Statutory Shared Parental Pay is paid at a flat rate or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower). Statutory Shared Parental Pay will increase to £139.58 per week from 5 April 2015.
If the mother or adopter curtails their entitlement to maternity/adoption pay or maternity allowance before they have used their full entitlement then Shared Parental Pay can be claimed for any remaining weeks.
To qualify for Shared Parental Pay a parent must, as well as passing the continuity of employment test also have earned an average salary of the lower earnings limit of £111 for the 8 weeks’ prior to the 15th week before the expected due date or matching date. Like Shared Parental Leave the other parent in the family must meet the employment and earnings test.
More information may be found here:
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4911
https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay
