Neonatal Care Pay and Leave

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What you can get

You may be entitled to Neonatal Care Leave, Statutory Neonatal Care Pay, or both.

You can get one week’s leave for every 7 full and continuous days your baby is in neonatal care.

Neonatal Care Leave

You can get up to 12 weeks’ Neonatal Care Leave if you’re classed as an employee. It does not matter how long you’ve been with your employer.

You must take the leave within 68 weeks (just under 16 months) of your baby’s birth date.

The notice period you must give your employer will depend on whether you’re taking leave:

  • while your baby is in neonatal care, or up to a week after leaving (this is sometimes called ‘tier 1’)
  • more than a week after your baby has left neonatal care (this is sometimes called ‘tier 2’)

How you take the leave

While your baby is in neonatal care, or up to a week after leaving, you can take leave in separate blocks of at least one week at a time.

After this, you must take leave in a single continuous block.

If you’re already taking maternity or adoption leave

If your baby enters neonatal care while you’re on Statutory Maternity Leave or Statutory Adoption Leave, you must take your Neonatal Care Leave after your maternity or adoption leave is finished.

Example

Your newborn baby gets sick and has to stay in neonatal care for 56 days. You’re already taking Statutory Maternity Leave.

Instead of losing 56 days (8 weeks) of leave, you add the Neonatal Care Leave to the end of your 39 weeks of maternity leave.

If you’re taking Shared Parental Leave or Statutory Paternity Leave

You can take Neonatal Care Pay and Leave either:

  • before you start Statutory Paternity Leave or Shared Parental Leave
  • between blocks of Shared Parental Leave that you booked before your baby started neonatal care (this includes if the Shared Parental Leave is for another child) 

If you’re using your leave and pay at least one week after your baby leaves neonatal care, you must take all of it in a single block. You can do this before or after your Shared Parental Leave or Statutory Paternity Leave.

Statutory Neonatal Care Pay

If you claim Neonatal Care Leave, you may also be able to claim Statutory Neonatal Care Pay if you’re eligible.

You’ll get either £187.18 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).

Any money you get is paid the same way as your wages, for example weekly or monthly, along with deductions for tax and National Insurance.

If you have more than one baby in neonatal care

If your babies are in neonatal care at the same time (for example, if you have twins), you can only claim Neonatal Care Pay and Leave for one of them, up to a maximum of 12 weeks.

If your babies are in neonatal care at separate times, you’ll be able to claim for each of them - up to a maximum of 12 weeks in total.