Paternity leave, gardening leave and payments?

[Malt_Vinegar]

This is my current situation.
I am on Gardening leave till the 12th, and start my new job (potentially) on the 16th. (They have given me some flexibility on start date due to new baby)
However, my daughter was born yesterday, so I have 2 days left of my gardening leave.
I wish to take paternity leave (2 weeks) to help my partner with the baby for a couple of weeks,
I am not eligable to claim from my new company, as I have not been there long enough, I can only claim from my existing company whilst I am still employed, but due to being on Gardening leave (full pay), this seems a bit pointless! However, I do wish to claim from the Job centre, which I have been told I can do.
However, does anyone have any idea of how this works before I put in a potentially long and confusing call to the job centre. I have never used their services before and am worried they will find my situation a bit off the usual..

 

[tom_e]

I've got no other advice other than good luck, you'll need it trying to get any sense out of the job center.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

I would imagine you just apply online if your eligible. Several months after applying and a few appointment arrangements, your claim will be accepted... when you are well into your new job.

What is the time frame of which you wish to claim for?

 

[Abraham]

http://www.dad.info/work/paternity-leave/what-if-i-m-self-employed
this doesn't look great for you, I can't really see that you're going to be able to get any paid leave from anywhere, and don't think the statutory stuff applies while you're not in employment, so you'd get it for these 2 days (which isn't worth losing your full pay for obviously)

 

[Amleto]

However, I do wish to claim from the Job centre, which I have been told I can do.

I haven't been able to find anything that suggest this is the case. Everything I've seen says you must be employed.

 

[peterwalkley]

Ignoring the money part - is your new employer willing to wait an additional 2 weeks for you to start ? If not, you are likely stuffed due to some unlucky timing.

Is there family nearby who can help the missus out for the first few weeks ? New baby usually means the grandparents are camped out on the doorstep whether you want them there or not.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

I haven't been able to find anything that suggest this is the case. Everything I've seen says you must be employed.

Job centre number have all either redirected me to a different department, or told me that they have no information on it.

Called ACAS, they cleared it up in 2 minutes.

My HR department have some explaining to do, they were the ones who told me I could claim from the job-centre, and this meant i set my finish dates around that.

Somewhat annoyed...

Thanks for the ruminations peeps!

New company is flexible about start dates, and happy wait till the 23rd rather than the provisionally agreed 16th start date (I made them aware of the situation when I interviewed). I am owed 13.5 days holiday from my last company anyway, so it more than covers the time considering the abysmal rate that paternity leave it paid at anyway.
I just find myself in the unusual situation of being unemployed for just over a week!!

 

[platypus]

I do wonder why the paternity leave and pay entitlement threshold is set at 26 weeks employment before 15 weeks of the due date.

So if the father starts a new job, his company can get out of their civic duty to pay the (appallingly low) paternity pay (which they claim 92% back anyway), and also legally refuse him time off to be at the birth and first few weeks of his childs birth?

 

[Amleto]

If they don't they can be damn sure they're not getting any favours, ever, from their brand new employee, though!