Maternity pay question

[schafernaker]

Hi, after a bit of advice for a friend. She is currently 21 weeks pregnant but off work following government advice to socially distance if pregnant but has been put on statutory sick pay.

She has been off for 3 weeks now so from week 18 of pregnancy.

Does anyone know how this will affect her maternity pay, will she still qualify for SMP?

She’s very confuse right now.

As long as she was employed before she fell pregnant and she's still employed by the 15th week before the baby is born, her SMP shouldn't be affected.

This explains it OP

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/sick-pay/getting-sick-pay-when-youre-pregnant/

Yes it might be. Her maternity leave won't be affected but her pay might. To be eligible for SMP you need to earn over a certain amount in your 'qualifying weeks'. Weeks 15-20something. (Baby brain has well and truly kicked in for me at 38weeks!)

The .gov website does have a calculator so she can check on there. I was on SSP for my qualifying weeks so can't get SMP from my employer but can claim maternity allowance which is more of a faff but for me works out at about the same amount

As long as she was employed before she fell pregnant and she's still employed by the 15th week before the baby is born, her SMP shouldn't be affected.

But the rate can be affected - see the link.

🤔 so as she will be on circa £95 for nearly the whole of her qualifying period due to being On sick my understanding is she would therefore not be eligible for SMP?

She would normally be easily above the £118 threshold to qualify 🙈 what a nightmare

Here's the calculator link (I hope!)

www.gov.uk/pay-leave-for-parents

It will tell her whether she will be able to claim maternity allowance although I'm still confused over the rates for that

Unfortunately if she's on SSP for the whole of the relevant pay period then she won't be eligible for SMP.

Depending on her due date and her normal earnings, she might just squeeze over the threshold though... If she's paid monthly, it's actually calculated on the two pay periods prior to the end of the qualifying week, so if she's 21 weeks now then her qualifying week should be either w/c 26th April or w/c 3rd May (the week always starts on a Sunday).

If she's paid around the end of the month, then the QW being either of these weeks should mean it's her March and April pay that's used for the calculation so if she went onto SSP in the second week of March, it's possible her normal earnings in the first week of March might just mean that her total pay for the two months comes in at just over the £118 threshold.

There's a lot of variables at play here, so don't get your hopes up until you've done the maths properly, but there's a chance.

It's also worth pointing out that the social distancing advice for the high-risk group (which pregnant women fall into) actually doesn't say they can't go to work - it says they should work from home if they are able to, but that they can still go to work if they can't work from home. It's only those in the extremely vulnerable category (who received NHS letters) who have been advised to stay away from work entirely.

I can completely understand why your friend has made the decision to remain at home under the current circumstances, so I'm absolutely not recommending that she change her mind and obviously I have no idea what her job is or the extent to which risks can be mitigated, but if it makes the difference between qualifying or not qualifying for SMP then she may want to consider returning to work even just for a week during April if that tips the balance and gets her over the threshold.

so as she will be on circa £95 for nearly the whole of her qualifying period due to being On sick my understanding is she would therefore not be eligible for SMP?

Yes I believe so.

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/sickness-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/

If you received SSP during the whole of the calculation period, your average earnings will be below the Lower Earnings Limit of £118 (April 2019-April 2020). This means that you will not qualify for SMP from your employer but you should apply for Maternity Allowance from the JobCentre Plus claim line on 0800 055 6688.

What does she do? Any chance she could work from home, even doing something else (eg admin) for the same company? Or maybe her employer could furlough her in which case she'd get 80% of her wages and paid by the Government (assuming that counts...).

Thanks all 😊 will give her the heads up. Not ideal it seems! I guess playing with using holiday or something may help