My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Work

Increased hours to improve maternity pay

3 replies

AngeChica · 04/01/2010 19:26

Hi, hope this is the right area for this query.

I currently work 3 days per week. My DS is about to turn 2 and we hope to have another baby this year. Because the 0.4 of my old whole time equivalent post has never been properly filled (supposed to be a job share but it didn't work out, now the current temp being let go as they are rubbish) I am in a strong position to go back in tomorrow and request to work say, 4 days a week. This would mean when I did go on maternity leave we would be better off as they pay will be pro rata of 4 days a week instead of 3.

However I think that you need to have worked at the increased hours for a certain length of time to qualify for the increased maternity pay. 13 weeks rings a bell; if this is the case it will affect when we TTC .

I heard about someone who worked for my organisation who fell foul of this and actually lied about her due date to try and get round it (doh! we work with doctors and they saw through it).

Does anyone know if this condition is employer specific (I work for the NHS) or a statutory thing as I can't find anything in government publications about it? I could check with my HR department but would be a bit self conscious about doing so.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

OP posts:
Report
mololoko · 04/01/2010 19:37

it's a statutory period on which your average weekly income is based, the 8 weeks leading up to your 15th week before due date. see here

my lovely HR lady made sure I got paid my annual bonus and delayed some overtime payments for me to make sure they fell within the period, which really helped an otherwise derisory maternity package!

Report
AngeChica · 04/01/2010 20:30

Hi thanks

NHS employees get 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half of full pay plus SMP, then 13 weeks just SMP. (a good deal - my employer will also averages this out so we get same amount each month if desired)

A generic NHS mat leave policy I found states:

"Full pay will be calculated using the average weekly earnings rules used for calculating SMP entitlements"

So according to the SMP regs the 8 weeks for someone like me would be occuring during pregnancy right? Just want to get this totally straight in my head!

OP posts:
Report
mololoko · 04/01/2010 20:45

yes, it is based on the average weekly income from the 8 weeks from weeks 17 to 25 of your pregnancy.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.