Who is eligible for shared parental leave (SPL)

To trigger the right to SPL for one or both parents, the mother or primary adopter must:

• have a partner;

• be entitled to statutory maternity or adoption leave, or to statutory maternity or adoption pay, (or maternity allowance (see page 239) if not eligible for statutory maternity or adoption leave);

• have curtailed or given the employer notice to curtail their statutory maternity or adoption leave, or their statutory maternity or adoption pay (or maternity allowance if not eligible for statutory maternity or adoption leave).

To be eligible to take SPL, a person must:

• be an employee;

• share primary parental responsibility for the care of the child with the other parent (i.e. be the child’s father or the employee’s partner) at the time of birth or placement for adoption;

• have been continuously employed for 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the due date or matching date (known as the continuity of employment test);

• still be working for the employer at the start of the leave period; and

• the other parent needs to satisfy an employment and earnings test. They can do this by:

• working as an employee or being in self-employment in Great Britain for at least 26 of the 66 weeks up to the due date of birth or placement; and

• having average weekly earnings of not less than £30 per week in 13 of these 66 weeks.

Sometimes only one parent is eligible. For example, a self-employed parent cannot take SPL because they are not an employee, but if they can pass the employment and earnings test, their directly employed partner may still qualify.

If both parents are employees and both are eligible, there will be a joint entitlement, and the parents can decide between themselves how to divide up the leave entitlement. However, it is always up to the mother to decide first whether or not to trigger SPL by curtailing her right to maternity leave (see below). Unless she does this, there will be no right to take SPL.

The mother can share her leave with only one person.

SPL cannot be shared with a grandparent. Only a partner sharing the main responsibility for the childcare can take SPL.