Unpaid leave and career breaks

Unpaid Leave and career breaks allow employees to take an agreed period of time off work to accommodate personal commitments or interests. They may be an effective means of retaining and/or reinvigorating a skilled and experienced employee who might otherwise resign from their post.

• Managers must consider how the service would be maintained in the absence of the employee. For example, if there are likely to be recruitment difficulties it might be necessary to postpone the start of such leave until they can be overcome.
• None of the normal employee benefits such as sick pay or accrual of annual leave will apply.
• Taking unpaid leave can affect your pension. The impact of unpaid leave on your pension is dependent upon the pension scheme you are a member of and your own personal circumstances.
• The People's Pension: For any days of unpaid leave, neither you nor the University will contribute to your pension. Your pension pot will therefore be slightly lower than it would otherwise have been, but any benefits payable in the event of your death would not otherwise be affected.
• The University of York Pension: If you are a member of the University of York Pension Fund then for any days of unpaid leave you will continue to pay the contributions that you would have paid were it not for the unpaid leave (including any AVCs). You will build up membership in the normal way and be covered for death in service benefits should you die whilst taking unpaid leave.

  You can choose not to pay pension contributions for the period that you are taking unpaid leave. If you choose not to pay contributions for the day(s) that you take unpaid leave, you will not build up membership of the scheme. If you are paying added years AVCs, these payments will permanently cease and you will not have any opportunity to restart those payments again in the future. Your added years AVC membership would be calculated pro-rata. You will still be treated as an active member for the purposes of calculating any death benefits, including any death in service lump sum.

• The USS pension: If you are a member of USS you can ask your department if it is willing to make the employer's contributions to USS in your absence, with you making up the employee contributions as normal in respect of any day(s) of unpaid leave. If your department is not willing to make the employer's contributions you can elect to pay both the employee and employer's contributions to cover the period of leave. If the employee and employer's contributions are maintained you will continue to accrue pension benefits and your death in service and incapacity benefits will remain in place for the period of leave. Payment is required in full in advance of the period of leave commencing.

  If the employee and employer's contributions are not maintained, you will not accrue benefits in the scheme for the days when you are on unpaid leave, and your membership will be suspended until your contributions start again. If you die or become incapacitated during this period, the benefits payable would be the same as those if you were a deferred member of the scheme.

  If you do not maintain your full contributions for any day(s) of unpaid leave, you will have the option to pay a special, lower contribution rate to USS so that if you die or become incapacitated you will be entitled to the normal death in service or ill health retirement benefits, but will not accrue any ordinary membership.

• The NHS Pension: If you are a member of NHS Pensions, then for any days of unpaid leave you may continue to pay the contributions that you would have paid were it not for the unpaid leave (including any AVCs) and continue to build up membership in the normal way.

  You can choose not to pay pension contributions for the period that you are taking unpaid leave. If you choose not to pay contributions for the day(s) that you take unpaid leave, you will not build up membership of the scheme and your last day of Scheme membership will be recorded as the day before the leave commences. On your return to the NHS from unpaid leave during which you did not contribute, you will return to the 2015 Scheme if you were a 2015 Scheme member prior to the break. You will be entitled to death in membership benefits during the period of unpaid leave providing that you continue to contribute to the Scheme.

• Contact the Pensions Team at pensions@york.ac.uk if you require any more information about how taking unpaid leave will affect your pension.
• Employees who have taken unpaid leave will return to work in their previous role. An employee returning from a career break, however, may be offered an alternative role on terms and conditions that are not less favourable. There may be training needs where that is the case and may be other implications that will need managing
• Employees on unpaid leave will retain their continuity of service but those on a career break will have their continuous service ‘frozen’ for the duration of their absence. That means, for example, that they will not be entitled to any incremental progression during that time.
• It is recommended that employees on longer periods of unpaid leave should maintain contact with their department wherever possible. Agreement should be reached on appropriate means of keeping in touch.
• A re-induction process may be helpful on the return of employees who have taken longer breaks.

These arrangements are separate from emergency leave for care of dependants.

• Unpaid Leave would normally describe short periods of leave of between 1 day and 3 months. An employee must have 26 weeks’ service to be eligible to apply.
• Career Breaks would normally describe longer periods of unpaid leave of between 3 and 12 months. An employee must have 2 years’ service to be eligible to apply. For more information see the policy on career breaks.