23
Oct 2015
Working Grandparents will be entitled to Shared Parental Leave and Pay
The Chancellor has recently announced that Shared Parental Leave and Pay will be extended to working grandparents. It is expected that the legislation will be brought into force by 2018.
Shared Parental Leave is a new entitlement for parents in the first year after the birth of their child or after their child’s placement for adoption. Such leave and is not compulsory and parents can still make use of the other entitlements available such as Maternity Leave and Paternity Leave. The relatively new schemes apply to working parents of babies with an expected week of childbirth and children placed for adoption on or after 5th April 2015.
The provision of Shared Parental Pay enables the mother and father (or the adopter and their partner) to share up to 37 weeks of the pay that the mother would be entitled to.
Shared Parental Leave enables parents to share 50 weeks’ leave (everything other than the compulsory maternity leave for mothers or the 2 weeks leave in adoption cases). The mother or the primary adopter ends the Maternity or Adoption Leave and the remaining time to which they are entitled is shared with the other parent as Shared Parental Leave. Importantly, this enables mothers or primary adopters to return to work without risking forfeiting the remaining time off work. Shared Parental Leave can be taken in chunks of time or consecutively.
There are eligibility and other requirements such as notice which employers are entitled to. Employers should be mindful to ensure that employees follow the guidance which is readily available from the government’s website.
The proposal to include grandparents will likely assist many families. There is evidence suggesting that nearly two million grandparents have retired, worked reduced hours, or taken time out of work to assist with childcare to reduce childcare costs. The government has estimated that ‘more than half of mothers rely on grandparents for childcare when they first go back to work after maternity leave, and of 60 per cent of working grandparents with grandchildren aged under 16 provide some childcare’.
- Like this ? Share with friends