How much maternity leave can I take

Cerocco

I’m in a full time job. On my first baby I went back after 6 months. I’m pregnant with no 2 and I’d like to take much longer as I’ll have 2 to care for. My question is. I know I can get 6 months paid leave and can take an extra 3 months unpaid but after that do I have to go back or is it at the discretion of my employer to let me take longer unpaid. I was thinking of taking a year in total off

catrionanic

Cerocco wrote: »

I’m in a full time job. On my first baby I went back after 6 months. I’m pregnant with no 2 and I’d like to take much longer as I’ll have 2 to care for. My question is. I know I can get 6 months paid leave and can take an extra 3 months unpaid but after that do I have to go back or is it at the discretion of my employer to let me take longer unpaid. I was thinking of taking a year in total off

It’s at their discretion afaik, however you will have accrued holidays while on mat leave. This, combined with other holidays you’ve got available to you, could extend it by another month or more.

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Cerocco wrote: »

I’m in a full time job. On my first baby I went back after 6 months. I’m pregnant with no 2 and I’d like to take much longer as I’ll have 2 to care for. My question is. I know I can get 6 months paid leave and can take an extra 3 months unpaid but after that do I have to go back or is it at the discretion of my employer to let me take longer unpaid. I was thinking of taking a year in total off

It's down to your employer

Foweva Awone

You can take 16 weeks unpaid, then don't forget to add in any annual leave etc accrued during the time you're off. Then you could take the remaining time as parental leave - info here. 18 weeks per child, can be used until the child's 8th birthday.

Gatica

The additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave is what ensures that your employer keeps your job for you. That is the additional leave that you can take in this country without it affecting your work, anything else would have to be at the discretion of your employer.
As others have mentioned, don't forget that you accrue Bank Holiday entitlement while you're on maternity leave as well as annual leave, as if you hadn't been on leave. If you're taking the full 26+16 weeks, that would be in the region of 8 additonal working days (but of course depends on when your actual leave takes place). Then you can take your accrued annual leave as well as any that you may have carried over when you left for maternity leave.
Of course whether you can take it right after your maternity leave would still be at the employer's discretion and policies would be different between companies. In my company, I had to take accrued Bank Holidays right after any maternity leave. I chose to take additional annual leave, which my manager approved.
As Foweva Awone said, you can also request parental leave. Best thing you can do though is discuss with your employer, e.g. manager and HR. It would be good to give them the heads up too in case they have to get a contractor in to cover you, so that they can get them for full duration of your absense. I realise that it's up to you to decide about your leave and only give 4 weeks notice to employer, but I imagine a good working relationship is in your interest too.

Neyite

Depending on your annual leave rules at work, you might be able to accrue lots of that to help too.

For example our new AL year starts in January. I got pregnant in August so I was allowed to carry over unused leave from that year to the next, then accrue all my AL for the year I gave birth, and a few days from the year I returned to work plus all bank holidays during maternity leave, plus the 26+16 weeks maternity and got the total up to 11 months.