For all adoption cases, it is necessary to keep track during the calculation of the outcome whether each partner is eligible or not for:
- adoption leave
- adoption pay
- paternity leave
- shared parental leave
- shared parental pay
This therefore makes up a total of 10 variables.
The reasons for not needing to track any other eligibilities are:
- paternity pay eligibility does not need to be tracked since eligibility for adoption pay is identical to eligibilty for paternity pay
- additional paternity leave eligibility is identical to eligibility for paternity leave in cases with match date prior to '05-04-2015'
The reasons for still needing to track some eligibilities that may not seem clear at first are:
- paternity leave eligibility criteria are not the same as adoption leave criteria (adoption leave becomes a day-1 right for all children matched after '05-04-2015', but not paternity leave)
Unlike maternity/paternity eligibilities, a number of flows can lead to the conclusion that both partners would be eligible for adoption leave and/or pay. It is however only possible for one of the partner's to take adoption leave or pay. The other must take paternity leave or pay if they are eligible for it.
In order to address the various ways in which adoption rights combine and what my recommendation for expressing them, I have chosen three cases that illustrate the different types of combinations that can be ambiguous.
Match date before '05-04-2015'
Adopter 1 employee passes continuity test and lower earnings test
Adopter 2 employee passes continuity test and lower earnings test
- adoption leave 1: yes
- adoption pay 1: yes
- paternity leave 1: yes
- shared parental leave 1: yes
- shared parental pay 1: yes
- adoption leave 2: yes
- adoption pay 2: yes
- paternity leave 2: yes
- shared parental leave 2: yes
- shared parental pay: yes
They have 2 options:
-
Partner 1 takes the adoption leave and pay, and shared parental leave and pay. Partner 2 takes the parternity leave and pay, and shared parental leave and pay.
-
Partner 2 takes the adoption leave and pay, and shared parental leave and pay. Partner 1 takes the parternity leave and pay, and shared parental leave and pay.
Match date after '05-04-2015'
Adopter 1 employee does not pass continuity test nor lower earnings test, but will be in work by match date, passes earnings and employment test
Adopter 2 worker passes continuity test and lower earnings test
- adoption leave 1: yes
- adoption pay 1: no
- paternity leave 1: no
- shared parental leave 1: yes
- shared parental pay 1: no
- adoption leave 2: no
- adoption pay 2: yes
- paternity leave 2: no
- shared parental leave 2: no
- shared parental pay: yes
They have 2 options:
-
Partner 1 takes the adoption leave. Partner 2 takes the paternity pay and shared parental pay.
-
Partner 1 takes nothing. Partner 2 takes the adoption pay and shared parental pay.
Match date before '05-04-2015'
Adopter 1 employee passes continuity test but not lower earnings test, but will be in work by match date, passes earnings and employment test
Adopter 2 worker passes continuity test and lower earnings test
- adoption leave 1: yes
- adoption pay 1: no
- paternity leave 1: yes
- shared parental leave 1: no
- shared parental pay 1: no
- adoption leave 2: no
- adoption pay 2: yes
- paternity leave 2: no
- shared parental leave 2: no
- shared parental pay: no
They have 2 options:
-
Partner 1 takes the adoption leave. Partner 2 takes the paternity pay and additional paternity pay.
-
Partner 1 takes paternity leave and additional paternity leave. Partner 2 takes the adoption pay.
Implement a plugin for each of the 10 variables listed in the Which eligibilities matter section.
Implement the flow in the same manner that the birth cases, but in all cases where the outcome involve each parent being eligible for adoption leave or pay, redirect to the generic outcome adoption-both (you might actually want to split that into two outcomes adoption-both_before-5-4 and adoption-both_after-5-4 because that Smartdown file is going to get big).
In order to explain the recommendation, I will go through the three cases detailed in the Dealing with both parents being eligible... section and show what snippets I'm expecting them to be shown.
Disclaimer: I'm not a content designer! This is a suggestion for content structure, and in no way matches the standard of English that is required for GOV.UK.
You have 2 options.
Option 1
{adoption_leave_1} {adoption_pay_1} {paternity_leave_2} {paternity_pay_2}
Option 2
{paternity_leave_1} {paternity_pay_1} {adoption_leave_2} {adoption_pay_2}
In both cases you get:
{both_shared-parental-leave} {both_shared-parental-pay}
You have 2 options.
Option 1
{adoption_leave_1} {paternity_pay_2}
Option 2
{partner-1-nothing} {adoption_pay_2}
In both cases you get:
{shared-parental-pay-2}
You have 2 options.
Option 1
{adoption_leave_1} {paternity_pay_2} {additional_paternity_pay_2}
Option 2
{paternity_leave_1} {additional-paternity_leave_1} {adoption_pay_2}
In particular, for each combined outcome, the plugins should be able to determine:
- eligibilities for case 1
- eligibilities for case 2
- eligibilities common to both cases
All the outcomes can be autogenerated, except the one or two complex outcomes listed above which need to be manually edited and curated: its content cannot be determined by the name of the file alone.