Maternity & Adoption Leave Changes

25 August 2006:

From 1 October 2006, new rules will come into force in respect of employees whose expected week of childbirth or expected date of placement for adopting is on or after 1 April 2007.

Employers will:

- have to pay Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) or Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) for up to 39 weeks
- have to allow all employed pregnant women, no matter how long they have worked for you, to take up to one year off work - this is because there will no longer be a length of service requirement for Additional Maternity Leave
- be entitled to eight weeks' notice from mothers and adopters returning to work earlier or later than originally planned
- be able to offer your employees paid keeping in touch days, which will not affect their right to continue their leave and receive statutory SMP or SAP
- have a duty to consider requests to work flexibly from employees who are carers of adults

Greater flexibility for SMP payments will allow you to:

- split the weekly rate of SMP into part-week payments if this works better with your payroll systems
- start SMP payments on any day of the week so that maternity leave and pay can start on the same day

For further information:

Web:www.dti.gov.uk