In April 2015 the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme was announced. Last year, my husband and I decided to take it. This is my experience, what’s yours?
My husband and I are a very modern couple. He’s always been keen that if we were lucky enough to have children, he would take an equal role in raising them.
So when, in April 2015, a scheme called Shared Parental Leave (SPL) was announced, we were both delighted. It allows mothers to share part of their statutory maternity leave and maternity pay entitlements with their partner.
The idea was touted by the (then coalition) government as being great for fathers, children and whole families. But we didn’t need convincing. Straight away, we knew that we’d be taking SPL if we became parents.
Three years later we were expecting our first baby, planning to take six months off each – first me, then him. As little people grow rapidly and come with a surprising amount of stuff, we were also in the process of upgrading from our one-bedroom flat.
Our experience of SPL
Despite our fears, the reaction to our decision to take SPL has generally been brilliant. My husband’s employers are very supportive, while friends and family agree it’s a fine thing.
When trouble arose, it was from the most unexpected of quarters – a mortgage lender.
When we applied for the mortgage we were advised that our impending bundle of joy was unlikely to be an issue.
The lender would want to know our plans for leave and childcare, but we had savings and were in a good position. After all, many lenders are reasonable and rightly view a lower income from maternity leave or SPL as a very temporary blip in the family finances.
All fine in theory. Unfortunately it seems the individual underwriter assessing our application had little grasp of how SPL works.
They made an error in their calculations, resulting in a demand for us to have a truly eye-watering savings pot to cover our baby’s first year. When we didn’t have enough, they rejected the application.
It was my knowledge as a financial journalist which enabled me to do the sums and prove that they’d got it wrong. Eventually they did offer us a mortgage. However, anyone without the confidence or skills to challenge such a rejection would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
A lack of awareness?
We were disappointed that a government scheme more than three years old – and with official guidance clearly published online – still isn’t fully understood by some financial professionals.
But then it’s likely many of them may not have encountered it before as take-up of SPL is tiny. Recent figures suggest only 1% of eligible parents are taking it, with the gender pay gap touted as one possible reason why fathers are reluctant to face a drop in income.
The government has now launched a campaign to promote SPL as an option.
Do you have any experience of SPL? Have you taken it, or do you know someone who has? What reaction did you receive from employers, colleagues and financial firms?
Did the financial constraints or the complex eligibility rules exclude you from taking it? Let me know in the comments.
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