To seek further/legal advice on my workplace?

[clairelouiisexo]

Due with my first baby in Jan 2018 and notified my work place super early (way back in June). I was sent all the risk assessments etc and told that my maternity eligibility would be calculated from my 'August and September pay'.

As I only work part time, it was then up to me to request more hours, which I did in our Aug and Sept work rotas. Received my mat b1 form from MW all fine, submitted to my HR department and now I'm being told I'm not eligible for mat pay as 'Aug and Sept pay' apparently meant my pay for July and August that I would receive during those months, not my pay FOR those months.

Been in touch with HR saying that I feel this info was deliberately misleading and got the usual 'sorry you feel this way' but now I'm facing a baby without the SMP I've worked so so hard to get and I feel like I've just been left to deal with it on my own. On some occasions I made myself physically ill making sure I was working the right hours to meet the criteria I was initially told and now I've been told the original info doesn't mean what it actually says.

Surely this can't be allowed? My managers have all seen that email (as proof of me needing more hours) and not one of them ever told me I'd misunderstood the email. Seems like now it's closer to the time they're trying to back out of paying out?

Has this ever happened to anyone else? I am constantly stressed trying to figure this out and what my next options are but I think it's totally unfair that I was deliberately given vague information and now I'm losing out from it too. AIBU to take this further?

Whaaaat? It's absolutely not on for HR to mislead you - that's unfair. Could you go to Citizens Advice and talk to them? They might be helpful

(And you are definitely not being U! So sorry to hear about this.)

The law is to do with what you were working in week 25:

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
To qualify for SMP you must:

earn on average at least £113 a week
give the correct notice
give proof you’re pregnant
have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks up to the ‘qualifying week’ - the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth

www.gov.uk/maternity-paternity-calculator
May help
If they have followed the law as above, unfortunately there is no point resorting to legal advice.

I get paid a month in arrears (so same as you from reading your thread) and I would definitely assume from August and September pay that they meant the pay I would RECIEVE in Aug/Sept rather than the pay I would get in Sept/Oct. So (IMO) YABU.

So you needed £113 per week for the last 26 weeks (on average).
I'm sorry HR weren't clear but this is a legal thing not an HR thing

That definitely sounds like it's been a bit misleading. They should have clarified what they meant especially when you started requesting more hours. Have you got a workplace union? Sometimes just getting them involved can give big bosses a kick up the backside as they don't want to deal with further legal stuff. I would definitely take it further though, it's unfair you've missed out for something that was worded incorrectly.

I can see why you were misled; but

1. If they’d told you the dates in a way that you’d understood, you couldn’t have done anything about your pay anyway, so you haven’t missed any opportunities; and

1. This is a legal requirement and not a HR one - it is always the 25th week.

You could complain but I don’t think you’ll get far; you’ve got no real losses and if you are paid in arrears; I don’t think they were wholly misleading - I would have interpreted their message as meaning the pay you’d get in Aug/Sept; rather than the hours you worked then to get paid in Sept/Oct.

There’s no basis for a legal challenge, unfortunately.

As you are due in January then the exact due date could impact on your eligibility. Have you done the calculator in the link posted by a PP above?

Also don't forget you can still get Maternity Allowance even if it turns out you didn't earn enough in the qualifying period for SMP.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/what-youll-get

You may feel misled but if you are paid a month in arrears August pay date would reflect July's work pattern and so on. Do you not normally earn over the SMP eligibility threshold? You would possibly get Maternity Allowance instead. You need to be clear what resolution you are seeking but SMP is determined by legislation so there is no room for discretion.

I don't understand why you aren't eligible for SMP. There's a legal minimum SMP regardless of what you've earned in the qualifying period or are you referring for the first 6 weeks?
If you're disgruntled that you aren't getting 90% of what you worked in what you thought was the calculation period then unfortunately yes HR made an error in telling you the wrong one but they can't fudge payroll for this it's a legal requirement.

I agree there's no legal grounds here it's an error made by HR - there isn't a claim? they have corrected the error. I say this as a HR consultant with 10 years plus experience

If you aren't eligible for SMP your employer should confirm in writing and then you can claim Maternity Allowance if you have enough NI contributions.

MA is the same as SMP except for the first 6 weeks but if you earn so little that you aren't eligible for SMP that's not going to make much difference to anything.

I'm sorry you misunderstood but legally you're on a hiding to nothing.

Did your employer give you an SMP1 form?

Details about maternity allowance including eligibility and how to claim here: www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance

Good news is that MA is not taxable :)

You can claim maternity allowance. You need to apply at the job centre. You need evidence of how much you earned over any 8 week period over the last 66 weeks.

Go through all your payslips and hand in the 8 with the highest hours. They don't have to be consecutive weeks. You may find that you end up with a higher payment than smp.

I don’t see that you were “deliberately given vague information”. What would they gain by doing that?

They said it would be calculated on August and September pay, meaning pay received in August and September. To be fair, that would be what I’d understand from “August and September pay” as well - I’d assume that meant the pay I received in August and September.

You understood it differently, fine, but I’m not sure how anyone’s done anything wrong here? There is plenty of information online about how maternity pay is calculated, and it’s always a good idea to inform yourself of your rights rather than relying on your employer to do it.

SMP is calculated in a specific way, there is no discretion, and the fact that you misunderstood/the HR person wasn’t as clear as perhap they could have been makes no difference to your entitlement.