Eligibility 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, if not eligible for statutory maternity or adoption leave);




• have curtailed (that is, ended early) 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 (that is, 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 must 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


◊ have average weekly earnings of at least £30 a week in 13 of the 66 weeks. The highest paying weeks can be added up. They need not be consecutive.




Sometimes only one parent is eligible. For example, a self-employed parent cannot take SPL because they are not an employee, but if they 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. However, it is always up to the mother to decide whether to trigger SPL by curtailing her maternity leave. Unless she does this, her partner will have 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 main responsibility for childcare can take SPL.
A proposal to extend shared parental leave to include grandparents, announced in the spring 2016 budget, does not seem to be progressing.