Share the care of your child as parents in the first year whilst balancing work.
Who is it for?
All MOD Civilians
What do I get?
Shared Parental Leave (ShPL) offers parents the opportunity to share the care of their child in the first year while balancing their work. ShPL is a statutory entitlement and is available to both parents, including adopters and their partners, with main caring responsibilities for a child.
Shared Parental Leave allows eligible parents to end maternity or primary adopter's adoption leave and pay early, and then share the untaken balance as Shared Parental Leave and Shared Parental Pay. It is important to note that the first two compulsory weeks of maternity leave (four weeks for manual work on industrial permises) or first two weeks of adoption leave must still be taken.
If you are in a surrogacy arrangement, and are eligible and intend to apply for a parental order, or if you are adopting through an approved agency and applying for an adoption order, you may also be eligible for ShPL. You can opt into ShPL once you have accessed adoption leave and pay.
MOD will pay Shared Parental Pay up to 39 weeks (less any weeks of statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance or statutory adoption pay already claimed) within one year from the birth or placement:
For the first 26 weeks of leave, occupational Shared Parental Pay will be paid at full pay, less any weeks' statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance or statutory adoption pay and leave already taken.
The next 13 weeks will be paid at statutory rate.
The final 13 weeks of Shared Parental Leave will be unpaid.
Next Steps
1
Joint / Economic Activity Test
In order to qualify for Shared Parental Leave and Shared Parental Pay, an employed person must have a partner who:
shares the main responsibility for the care of the child and who is either:
their spouse, civil partner or joint adopter;
the child's other parent;
their partner
declares that they meet the employment and earnings test. This requires them to have worked for any 26 out of the 66 weeks leading up to the Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC) or the adoption matching date, and to have earned at least £30 gross per week for any 13 of those weeks.
2
Individual Test
To be eligible, each parent:
must have at least 26 weeks' continuous service with the same employer by the end of the 15th week before the EWC or adoption matching date.
must still be working for the same employer when they intend to take the leave.
must earn over the lower earnings limit in the eight weeks prior to the 15th week before the EWC or adoption placement date.
3
You should give your line manager a minimum of eight weeks' notice of your intention to take Shared Parental Leave by using HR Form 219a: Shared Parental Notice of Intention. MDP Officers should use HR Form 219b: Ministry of Defence Police Shared Parental Leave Notice of Intention. This includes a non-binding indication of the expected pattern of leave to give an early indication to line managers of the intended leave pattern.
4
If you are already within a period of agreed leave, this will continue until agreement of the new leave pattern is reached and the required notice period is completed.
