Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to provide additional parental pay entitlements for new parents who have recently changed or left their jobs as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Statutory Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave, and Parental Bereavement Leave are ‘day 1’ rights which means that an employee will qualify for these entitlements even if they have recently changed jobs.

In order to qualify for Statutory Paternity Leave and Shared Parental Leave, an employee must have been continuously employed by their current employer for 26 weeks at the ‘relevant date’.

In order to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, Adoption Pay, Paternity Pay, Shared Parental Pay and Parental Bereavement Pay, an employee must have earned at least the lower earnings level (currently £120 a week) in an 8 week reference period and worked continuously for their employer for 26 weeks at the ‘relevant date’. Additional qualifying criteria attach to Paternity, Shared Parental and Parental Bereavement Pay.

The ‘relevant date’ differs depending on whether the employee is a ‘birth parent’, a bereaved parent or an ‘adopter’. But in the case of Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay an employee will qualify for pay if they have 26 weeks continuous service at the ‘relevant date’ even if they subsequently leave their job or are made redundant. They will, however, cease to qualify if they end their parental leave to start working for a new employer.

Further information is on the eligibility criteria for parental leave and pay is on GOV.UK.