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My husband and I have had a child placed with us for adoption. We both meet the criteria for one parent to take the Shared Parental Leave and Shared Parental Pay; he has been employed continuously by the same employer for +10 years and earning more than £116 a week. I was in permanent employment for six years until being made redundant so meet the criteria of having been in work for at least 26 weeks during the 66 weeks before the week the child was placed with us and earned at least £390 in total in 13 of the 66 weeks. My husband is currently on adoption leave and pay from work (2 x weeks adoption leave and 16 weeks shared parental leave) and is curtailing his leave so I can start to receive the statutory shared parental pay for the remaining 21 weeks. Whilst he’s been home I have started a part time job and I had intended to finish before he returned to work. However, my hours can be worked around his so my question is can I stay in this job and still receive the statutory ShPP from my husband’s work? I am not eligible to claim for pay and leave from my part time job as I don’t earn enough and started after our child was placed so my only options are to stay on, if it doesn’t affect our receiving the ShPP or to give the required week notice to finish the job.
If one person is at work then the other can receive statutory pay (when eligible) the payment of ShPP is to enable one of the parents to be at home to care for the child. This is regardless of hours, but essentially the payment is so one parent doesn’t have to go to work.
If you wish to work (paid work of any kind at all) then you must end the ShPP. You will need to give the required notice and then can return to work once the ShPP payments end if you wish. ShPP cannot be paid with both the parents working. In my opinion it would only be worthwhile ending your ShPP if your current role earns more than the payment.
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