Legislation protects the pension rights of members of occupational pension schemes and other employment-related benefit schemes (such as workplace personal pension schemes to which the employer contributes) who are absent from work due to a period of statutory family leave. Periods of statutory family leave include maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, parental leave, shared parental leave, parental bereavement leave, and carer’s leave.

Maternity leave

1. •

   occupational pension schemes are deemed to contain a maternity equality rule which requires them to treat time when members are on maternity leave in the same way as time when they are not on maternity leave. The maternity equality rule applies to periods of paid and unpaid ordinary maternity leave (OML) and paid additional maternity leave (AML)

2. •

   under the maternity equality rule, periods of OML and paid AML in a defined benefit (DB) scheme therefore count as pensionable service. More generally, while employers are required to continue paying contributions as normal during periods of OML and paid AML, the employee only pays contributions on the amount actually paid