Maternity pay entitlement - 24 wks at half pay or 12 weeks at full pay

[N1SEXYTING]

Hi

I'm trying to work out which is best for me to take. My work's maternity pay is quite good and I am entitled to the following

a) full pay for the first sixteen weeks you are absent, and,

b)the option of receiving either:

i. 24 weeks at half pay and up to 12 weeks without pay, or,
ii. 12 weeks at full pay and up to 24 weeks without pay.

My baby is due Feb 22nd and since I have a month's annual leave I intend to take that as a block in January so I can start my maternity leave later.

If i start ML on 5th Feb then I would get full pay until the 25th May regardless. I can then opt to get another 12weeks full pay until the 17th of August or half pay until 9th November.

As I would like to take a full year off, in terms of qualifying for extra support from the government in terms of working tax credit or income support, would it be better to get the full pay for 12 weeks or half pay for 24 weeks.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions

[mamijacacalys]

Lucky you - my employer is v mean and I only get statutory SMP. (DD 12 weeks so currently v poor!!)

My experience of tax credits is that they are worked out on your total pay in any financial year (you have to send in your P60 as proof of income plus, obviously, your dp/dh's too if you have one). As your full pay/half pay options both occur within the same financial year (from May to August or November), it would therefore make no difference to the level of tax credit award which option you take as your total income would be the same (if I have understood you correctly).

(In case you didn't know, you will get additional working tax credit whilst the baby is under 1 yr old, so get that claim in promptly!)

Sorry, don't know a thing re income support, but hope above is helpful!

[Uwila]

Wow, mind if I ask who you work for? Think they deserve some praise.

I only got stat. min.

[lexiemum]

i got a similar deal.

I would say go for half pay - it takes a long time to adjust from having 2 salaries coming in to one. At least you'll have something evry month till you return to work if you decide too.

[Uwila]

I think I would go for 12. I'm more of a take the money and run girl. When it runs out, go back to work.

[LittleB]

I had a similar situation, where I could take about 80% pay for 10wks or 40% for 20 weeks (after full for 6 weeks). I took it spread over 20weeks. It doesn't make any difference to your tax credits etc as they are calculated over a year and gave me time to adjust to having less money before I returned to work part time. I also saved up leave until before dd was due, she came a week early, during my leave, so maternity leave started the day she was born and I had leave to acrry over, gave me longer at home with her before returning to work, worth doing if you can cope with the work!

[LunarSea]

24 weeks at half pay - you'll end up paying less National Insurance on it that way.

[Judy1234]

Depends what you can afford. If you cannot afford to live on the half pay then take the full pay and then go back to work. We just could never afforded for me to take anything beyond the 6 weeks at 90% pay or whatever it was