yes, 12 months
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/matleafr.htm
Pregnant employees are entitled to 26 weeks’ ordinary maternity leave, regardless of how long they have worked for their employer. Most mothers will usually qualify to be paid Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance during ordinary maternity leave. For more information (see below) Women who have completed 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer by the beginning of the 14th week before their EWC can take additional maternity leave. Additional maternity leave starts immediately after ordinary maternity leave and continues for a further 26 weeks. Additional maternity leave is usually unpaid although a woman may have contractual rights to pay during her period of additional maternity leave.
Statutory Maternity Pay
Pregnant employees who meet the qualifying conditions based on their length of service and average earnings are entitled to receive employers up to 26 weeks' SMP from their.
Qualifying conditions
She must work for someone who is liable (or would be liable but for low earnings) to pay the employer’s share of her Class 1 National Insurance contributions.
She must have 26 weeks' continuous service with her employer into the 15th week before the week her baby is due. The 15th week before the week the baby is due is known as the qualifying week
.
She must have average weekly earnings in the eight weeks up to and including the qualifying week at or above the lower earnings limit (LEL) for the payment of National Insurance (NI) contributions (£79 a week from April 2004).
Levels and length of payment
Paid for a maximum of 26 weeks.
Six weeks at 90 per cent of her average weekly earnings (with no upper limit).
20 weeks at a flat rate of £106 or 90 per cent of her average weekly earnings if that is less than the flat rate
*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii
Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.â€
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein