Redundancy and Maternity Pay

[singingsister]

Hiya,

I'm 20 weeks pregnant and and in the process of being made redundant. Now to get SMP I know you have to be employed for 25 weeks but I'm unsure if that's 25 weeks BEFORE being given notice of redundancy (4 weeks in my case), or whether my last day at work including notice of redundancy could be week 25.

Hope that makes sense!

Does anyone know the answer?

Sarah
20+1

[Tweetinat]

Although I'm not an expert, I believe that it will depend on when exactly your last day of employment actually is. If that date is beyond the 25weeks, then you're okay. It sounds like (from what you say) that you've been given notice but that you're last working day will be in week 25 - I would say from that info that you'll just scrape through, but I would suggest that you call ACAS as they may be able to give you some clearer advice.

Natalie

[flowerybeanbag]

As long as you are still employed by the 15th week before the week your baby is due, you should get SMP. Whether you are working notice during that time is irrelevant, it's your termination date that's important.

Have you actually been given notice of redundancy and a termination date yet? Do you know you are going to have to work your notice? If they might pay you in lieu of notice, terminating your employment earlier, depending on what you contract says about pay in lieu of notice, you may miss out.

[singingsister]

Hi

I've just come out of a meeting telling me I'm officially being made redundant and work are proposing to give me 4 weeks notice (on garden leave) and also together with my 2 years redundancy (£700), and any holiday owed to me, pay my SMP to me upfront in full with my redundancy "package".

That sounds lovely on the face of it, but I'm worried that if they do pay my SMP upfront it would affect any benefits due to me due to being a new mum. I'm thinking being paid SMP up front just seems too easy.

Can you advise?

[skyblu]

I was made redundant at 9 weeks pregnant and I still got SMP.

I'm really sorry i can't be of more help though....I just can't remember all the details - it was a really hard time and I had a baby, moved 3 times and got another job since then!!

[Tweetinat]

If you accept your SMP as a 'lump sum' then you will end up paying significantly more NI contributions than if it were paid monthly. Normally, you only pay NI on earnings over £110/w - so, on the standard rate of £123.06 (lets ignore the first 6 weeks for now) then you'd pay NI of 11% on £13.06. When you get it as a lump sum, then you'll pay 11% on everything over the first £110. When this happened to me, I ended up paying approx. £400 more in NI than I needed to.

I don't know whether you can insist that they pay it as they normally would have, but at the very least could you negotiate a tax free redundancy amount to compensate you for this loss?

[singingsister]

hmmm. I've just asked my solicitor about this point!