Maternity pay in the NHS.

[Writerwannabe83]

Hello everyone, just after some advice regarding maternity pay in the NHS.

I thought maternity pay was based on your annual basic wage (I.e whichever pay scale you are on) but my colleague told me she thought your maternity pay took into account your nights, weekends and unsociable hours etc and I'm confused as to how it works to be honest?

Me and DH are trying to plan/budget for my maternity leave but it's hard because I don't know how much I'm going to get.

When I had my DS I worked Mon-Fri 9-5 so my monthly pay was the same each month but in my current job, depending on my shifts my take home pay can range from anywhere between £1700-£2100 so how will my maternity pay be decided?

Thanks to anyone who can clear this up for me.

[LIZS]

Smp , and presumably occupational maternity pay , is based upon what you are actually paid in the relevant weeks so can include overtime, bonuses etc.

[Babyiwantabump]

It's based on what you earn between week 12-18 I think . Something like that . So you get an average of your sociable hours pay

[Babyiwantabump]

Just make sure you work lots of nights and bank in the qualifying period 😀

[Lugeeta]

It's based on what you earn from week 17-week 25 ( so if you can do lots of unsocial hours the month before so you get better maternity pay!)

[Writerwannabe83]

I thInk I'm screwed then as I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant and for the next 6 weeks I'm not doing any unsociable hours or weekend work

[daisydalrymple]

Forgive the cynic in me, but is the person that's in charge of the rota aware of how many weeks pregnant you are? Just wondering if you've been deliberately held off shifts etc to avoid the enhanced pay?

[Writerwannabe83]

No it's because I'm on reduced hours and non-clinical duties because of pregnancy related illness

[daisydalrymple]

Oh I see, sorry to hear that. Hope the rest of your pregnancy is as relaxed as can be

[Writerwannabe83]

I'm not sure it will be now that I know my maternity pay will be much lower than I thought

[flowery]

Agenda for Change maternity section should be clear on this. I don't know off the top of my head but it's not necessarily calculated the same way as SMP is amd forgive me if I'm wrong but I'm not sure whether any of the posters responding are 100% clear on what AfC actually says?

[Writerwannabe83]

I rang my payroll department to ask them what timeframe is used to calculate maternity pay (I.e between 16 and 24 weeks pregnant) and she got really shirty with me and said she couldn't give out that kind of information followed by telling me that such decisions can't be made until I submit my Mat B forms. It was really strange.

I will have a look at information provided by AfC then - thank you.

[daisydalrymple]

You don't need to ring payroll to ask that, your trust / health board should have a maternity policy that you should have access to. Try HR. (Have you also had a work based risk assessment for your pregnancy?)

[daisydalrymple]

In fact you could try just googling your organisation name and maternity policy, I've just found our local health board policy, so yours may even be available online!

[HaPPy8]

It is what earlier posters have said so you will not get as much if you aren't being paid any unsocial hours in the qualifying weeks. Sorry.

[lougle]

It's in the Agenda for Change handbook:

"15.23 Full pay will be calculated using the average weekly earnings rules used for calculating Statutory Maternity Pay entitlements, subject to the following qualifications:

i) in the event of a pay award or annual increment being implemented before the paid maternity leave period begins, the maternity pay should be calculated as though the pay award or annual increment had effect throughout the entire Statutory Maternity Pay calculation period. If such a pay award was agreed retrospectively, the maternity pay should be re-calculated on the same basis;

ii) in the event of a pay award or annual increment being implemented during the paid maternity leave period, the maternity pay due from the date of the pay award or annual increment should be increased accordingly. If such a pay award was agreed retrospectively the maternity pay should be re-calculated on the same basis;

iii) in the case of an employee on unpaid sick absence or on sick absence attracting half pay during the whole or part of the period used for calculating average weekly earnings, in accordance with the earnings rules for Statutory Maternity Pay purposes, average weekly earnings for the period of sick absence shall be calculated on the basis of notional full sick pay."

In other words, they use the same calculation window as SMP, so normally weeks 17-25.