Is statutory maternity pay the norm for most employers?

[FelicisWolf]

I would be really interested to hear other people's experiences of what their employers offer for maternity pay. I've only been at my job for 6 months and will be ttc soon after the limit for maternity coverage starts (2 years) as I can't really wait much longer. My boss has made it clear that they will only pay statutory maternity pay, he was shocked to learn (after another employee in a different branch went on maternity) that this covers 9 months worth (he thought it was only 4) even though payments are reduced over that time. What cover did you have? Is statutory the norm or do most employers offer more?

I'm sure statutory is the norm.

Mine is just statutory.

Remember (because your employer doesn’t sound on the ball!) that although the payments only cover 9 months you can take up to 12 months with the last 3 month unpaid if you want to spend extra time with baby (if it’s affordable of course).

I managed to take 10 month by taking some of my annual leave as a lump at the end of my mat leave.

I've only worked for charities and the one I worked for when I was pregnant was particularly tight so bare legal minimum. I'm always amazed when threads here are full of people who get more than that and are surprised lots of employers don't offer extra.

Statutory is the norm in the private sector

It really varies. In my experience - some pay almost full pay for six weeks, then half pay to to five months then statutory (public sector). Some pay full pay for six months (city jobs). Some pay just statutory.

I had my maternity pay whilst working for one of the largest building societies in the UK and it is was limited to what was required by law at the time, nothing more than that. This was 10 years ago.

"I've only been at my job for 6 months and will be ttc soon after the limit for maternity coverage starts (2 years)"

Eh? 2 years?

You'll be eligible for SMP if you get pregnant now. It's slightly complicated but basically if you get pregnant at least a week after starting the job, you get SMP.

The info is all online if you look.

I had full pay 9mths.

If your e.ployer only offers SMP then you can try for a baby any time from now and you will be entitled to it.

I got six months full pay. I returned to work once this ended. I was very lucky! I've moved companies now but my current employer pays 4 months full pay.

Danger wow! What do you do?

You'll be eligible for SMP if you get pregnant now. It's slightly complicated but basically if you get pregnant at least a week after starting the job, you get SMP

This is what I was going to say. You more than qualify for SMP by law.
You need to have been employed for 26 weeks by around the 25th week of pregnancy.

Statutory is the norm in the private sector

Very much depends which sector! My husband is a city solicitor as are lots of our friends. Their mat pay provisions and benefits in general are way better than my nhs ones.

As with a lots of things, however unjust, the more you have the more you seem to get... so if you're in a professional, well paid role you're likely to get better workplace benefits IME.

I suspect statutory is very common for lots of roles thought.

I’m public sector - full pay for 18 weeks, statutory up to 39 wks, nil pay weeks 40-52. I believe that this is fairly standard in the public sector.

I actually got two lots of SMP as I had two part time jobs (two teaching posts that made one whole week) and then I also got my OMP on top of that. Can’t remember the time scale but It was X weeks @90%, X weeks @50% etc and then my 2x SMP kicked in. To this day I have no idea why I got two lots but I wasn’t arguing 🤷‍♀️

I had full pay for 6 months, stat for 13 weeks and nothing for last 13 weeks

My employer seemed pretty sure that no one is eligible for any maternity until after 2 years It's a small company and he obviously seems a bit out of the loop. Could it be that up until 2 years you can legally fire someone for no reason? (Or something along those lines)

Your employer is an idiot ill informed

Statutory minimum for me. My only friends that had better terms were teachers or working for financial services.

Bike thats not standard. It was something like 6 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks at 50% and SMP for 26 weeks for public sector.

Statutory is very normal within the private sector.

Could it be that up until 2 years you can legally fire someone for no reason?

You can never fire someone solely because they’re pregnant. If they’ve been with you for ten years or ten minutes, it doesn’t matter.

The company will get most of the SMP refunded to them by the government anyway!!!

6 months full pay, 3 months SMP and 3 months unpaid.

Does he realise that he/the company doesn't technically pay SMP? He/the company claims the majority of it back from the government, so eligibility for it is what HMRC have on their website, not what a company decides.

Enhanced maternity pay, that is offering an enhanced package like full pay for 3 months, etc, is a company policy and that can be subject to their own rules about duration of service.