UK Parliament home

This petition was submitted during the 2019 to 2024 Parliament

View other petitions from this Parliament

Closed Extend Maternity / Shared Parental Leave from 12 months to 15 months

Closed on

Returning to work after maternity can be a hard and difficult experience. Extending the period of unpaid leave from 3 months to 6 months after SM Pay ends could help overcome the difficulties of new caring responsibilities, sleepless nights, breastfeeding, changed body and separation anxiety.

Extending unpaid leave could:
- Give another choice other than leaving employment or returning before ready
- Encourage fathers to take shared parental leave
- Provide job security, for example if a partner faced possible redundancy
- Enable mothers to start their leave before the birth without losing time after
- Give the right to request additional unpaid leave, especially relevant if the parent must return due to Occupational Maternity Pay requirements.

34 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Petition progress

View all updates for this petition, with the most recent first.

  • Petition closed

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 11 April 2022.