best time to take maternity leave???

[Storm7]

Health allowing I am planning on working up to 38 weeks pregnant and then taking 2 weeks holiday before starting my maternity leave on my due date - Maternity leave will kick in if I go into labour whilst on hols and if this happens I will just shift those holidays till before I go back to work.

I am then planning on taking 6 months off before returning to work (some of this will be hols at the end though as my occupational maternity pay drops to 25% + stat after 4.5 months).

 

[lisa2011]

I am confused with the whole holiday entitilement before maternity. I am due 31/1/11 so was going to work up to the 21/1 as work are saying i cant take the whole of my holiday allowance (25days) at the begining as i might not come back to work and then they have paid me in full for the holiday i wouldn't be entitled to.

Can i take my full holiday before my maternity leave? my holidays run from 1st jan to 31st dec. I am very confused by the whole thing not even convinced work understand the laws

 

[Storm7]

I think it depends on company policy. My holiday year runs October to September (strange I know) so I don't have that problem. They have said to me I can use my holiday whichever side of my due date I want though so I think I could probably use it all before if I chose to.