Changes to maternity leave rights
benefit women whose expected week of
childbirth (EWC) begins on or after 6
April 2003.
At the same time, the Government is
introducing rights to paid adoption and
paternity leave, and the right for
parents of young children to apply to
work flexibly. These rights, together
with existing rights to parental leave
and time off for dependants, provide
parents with more opportunities than
ever before to balance work and family
life, whilst being compatible with, and
beneficial to, business efficiency.
This page provides only basic
information on the key changes to
maternity leave – many maternity-related
rights and obligations remain unchanged,
including the right to time off for
antenatal care, the two- week period of
compulsory maternity leave after the
birth, the maternity health and safety
suspension provisions, and the right to
protection from detrimental treatment on
grounds of maternity. This web page does
not attempt to describe the detail of
the changes and should not be taken as
an authoritative statement of the law.
Always consult a solicitor for further
advice.
Women whose babies are due on or after 6
April 2003, and their employers, will
benefit from revised, simplified rights
to maternity leave.
Start dates.
Women whose expected week of childbirth
(EWC) begins on or after 6 April 2003
benefit from the new maternity leave
provisions.
Women whose EWC is on or after 6 April
2003 benefit from the new leave rights
even if their babies are born earlier
than expected.
The changes to maternity leave
provisions do not apply to women whose
EWC is before 6 April 2003, even if
their babies are born later than
expected on or after 6 April 2003.
Length of maternity leave.
The length of ordinary maternity leave
is increased and pregnant employees are
entitled to 26 weeks’ ordinary maternity
leave, regardless of how long they have
worked for their employer.
Ordinary maternity leave is normally
paid leave.
Women who have completed 26 weeks’
continuous service with their employer
by the beginning of the 14th week before
their EWC can take additional maternity
leave. Additional maternity leave starts
immediately after ordinary maternity
leave and continues for a further 26
weeks.
Additional maternity leave is usually
unpaid although a woman may have
contractual rights to pay during her
period of additional maternity leave.
Notice of intention to take maternity
leave.
A pregnant employee must notify her
employer of her intention to take
maternity leave by the end of the 15th
week before her EWC, unless this is not
reasonably practicable. She must tell
her employer:
A woman can change
her mind about when she wants to start
her leave providing she tells her
employer at least 28 days in advance
(unless this is not reasonably
practicable).
Employers are
required to respond to a woman’s
notification of her leave plans within
28 days unless the woman has varied that
date, in which case the employer must
respond with 28 days of the start of
maternity leave. An employer must write
to his employee, setting out the date on
which he expects her to return to work
if she takes her full entitlement to
maternity leave.
There is no change to
how early a woman is able to start her
maternity leave – the earliest date
continues to be the beginning of the
11th week before her baby is due.
Returning to work
after maternity leave.
There is no longer
provision for an employer to write to a
woman before the end of her ordinary
maternity leave period to ask the date
on which her child was born and whether
she intends to return after her
additional maternity leave period. This
means that a woman who intends to return
to work at the end of her full maternity
leave entitlement is not required to
give any further notification to her
employer.
An employee who wants
to return to work before the end of her
maternity leave needs to give her
employer 28 days' notice of the date she
wants to return to work.
Sickness trigger.
A woman’s maternity
leave starts automatically if she is
absent from work for a pregnancy related
illness during the four weeks before the
start of her EWC, regardless of when she
has said she actually wants her
maternity leave to start.
Other changes
Statutory Maternity
Pay and Maternity Allowance.
The Department for
Work and Pensions is making changes to
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and
Maternity Allowance (MA). The most
important of these increase the length
of time covered by SMP or MA and
increase the amount paid.
Women who are
entitled to SMP or MA and whose EWC
begins on or after 6 April 2003 receive
SMP or MA for 26 weeks.
Women who are
entitled to SMP or MA and whose EWC
begins on or after 6 April 2003 but who
give birth prematurely, are entitled to
receive SMP or MA for 26 weeks.
From 6 April 2003,
the standard rates of SMP and MA are
increasing from the current £75 a week
to £100 a week (or 90% of the woman's
average weekly earnings if this is less
than £100 a week). There is no change to
the current earnings-related rate of SMP
(90% of average weekly earnings) which
applies for the first six weeks of the
pay period.
The new standard
rates apply from 6 April 2003 to all
women getting SMP or MA at that point
regardless of when they expect their
baby, or whether they qualify for the
new extended pay period. The current
standard rate of £75 applies up to 5
April 2003.
When the changes are
fully in place, women either get:
-
SMP from their
employer worth 90% of their earnings
for 6 weeks, followed by 20 weeks at
£100 (or 90% of earnings for the
full 26 weeks if this is less than
£100 a week) or;
-
MA from their
local Jobcentre Plus / social
security office worth £100 a week
for 26 weeks (or 90% of their
earnings for 26 weeks if this is
less than £100 a week).
Full details of the
revised SMP and MA schemes can be found
in the leaflet NI17A (October 2002
version) which is available from your
local Jobcentre Plus/social security
office.
Full details of the
existing SMP and MA schemes can be found
in the leaflet NI17A (April 2001
version) which is available from your
local social security office or
Jobcentre Plus office.
Employers’ recovery
of payments.
Existing arrangements
for employers to recover Statutory
Maternity Pay (SMP) continue – employers
are able to claim back 92% of the
payments they make, with those eligible
for small employers’ relief able to
claim back 100% plus an additional
amount in compensation for the
employer’s portion of National Insurance
contributions paid on SMP.
In addition, under
the new arrangements, employers who need
to, can get funding in advance for
payments of SMP from the Inland Revenue.
Other Family Friendly
Rights
Right to apply to
work flexibly
A right for parents
of young, or disabled, children to
request flexible working is being
introduced. From 6 April 2003 eligible
employees who are parents of children
aged under six, or of disabled children
aged under 18, will have the right to
apply to work flexibly. Their employers
will have a duty to consider such
requests seriously. See Flexible working
– the right to apply
Right to paid
paternity leave.
A right to paternity
leave and pay is being introduced.
Eligible employees can take up to two
weeks’ paid leave to care for their new
baby and support the mother. The right
is available to employees whose children
are expected to be born, or are born, on
or after 6 April 2003.
Rights to paid leave
for adoptive parents.
A right to adoption
leave and pay is being introduced. The
right is available to individuals who
adopt, or one partner of a couple where
the couple adopt jointly. A right to
paternity leave and pay for the other
member of the couple, or an adopter’s
partner, is also being introduced.
Employees whose children are placed with
them on or after 6 April 2003 benefit
from these adoption and paternity leave
and pay rights.
Rights to parental
leave and time off for dependants.
Employees – both
mothers and fathers – who have completed
one year’s service with their employers
are entitled to 13 weeks’ (unpaid)
parental leave to care for their child.
Parental leave can usually be taken up
to five years from the date of birth or
in cases of adoption five years from the
date of placement (or the child’s 18th
birthday, if that is sooner).
Parents of disabled
children are entitled to 18 weeks’
parental leave (previously 13 weeks) up
to the child’s 18th birthday, providing
they have the qualifying length of
service.
All employees are
also entitled to take a reasonable
amount of (unpaid) time off work to deal
with an emergency or unexpected
situation involving a dependant.
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