Maternity Pay - NHS Band 3

[TheRubyTurtle]

First time mum here. Baby due October. Working for NHS Scotland at top of band 3 (£30,230). Payroll initially told me to wait until mat B1 form was submitted before getting a breakdown a wages now they’re telling me I won’t get a breakdown until I start my maternity leave!! Not very helpful when I don’t know how much mat leave I can afford to take. Does anyone have any idea what my pay might look like if I spread over 11 months and opt out of my pension scheme??

very stressed and anxious mum to be here😫😫

Don’t opt out of pension! That would be absolute madness because they have to keep paying it for you.

I’ll work it out now for you.

£30,230 = £581.35 per week

8 weeks full pay = 4650.80
18 weeks half pay plus SMP = 18 x (290.68 + 187.18) = 8601.39
13 weeks SMP = 2433.34

totals £15685.33 gross.

You would also accrue holiday and bank holidays which you could use to extend your leave.

But it’s going to be more than half what you get now because you won’t pay tax on much of it.

Thanks for this! Yeah I plan on using the accrued holidays to take an extra month off after 12 months maternity leave so I still get the full year. Lots of people have suggested coming out of the pension while on leave and re-enrolling after the 11 months are up. Employer co tribute on would still go in and they all say I’m young enough so I won’t notice much of a difference come retirement. It’s all so confusing!

Employer contribution will stop if you opt out

It’s a defined benefits scheme. You can’t have their bit without yours.