Evening, many thanks for taking the time to reply. That is what I, unfort., thought regarding maintaining my pension contributions during this time.
The second part of my q. was similiar as I am already buying back years and wondered if I could maintain these contributions too, guessing no!
Can anyone let me know if the situation is the same for parental leave, ie cannot maintain pension contributions, although my understanding is that this leave is reckonable for pension purposes?
Folly
Eta: To purchase the additional 16 weeks as a lumpsum for notional pension is the prohibitive cost I mentioned in first post. Not so bad if paid out over time but cannot purchase 16 weeks in this manner.