Minimum wage increase and maternity leave

[flightofthesevenmillionbumblebees]

Posting here for traffic..

Started maternity leave in February. I'm on minimum wage, which of course increased in April. Read this on the gov website months ago when news of min wage increase was released -

A pay rise must not be withheld because of maternity leave.
You must recalculate the average weekly earnings (AWE) to take account of pay rises awarded, or that would have been awarded had your employee not been on maternity leave.
This applies if the pay rise was effective from anytime between the start of the 8 week relevant period for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and the end of the statutory maternity leave.
If a pay rise is awarded after you’ve calculated your employee’s earnings, and that pay rise is effective from the start date of the relevant period but before the Maternity Pay Period (MPP) ends, you must:
• recalculate the AWE to include the pay rise as though it was effective from the beginning of the relevant period
• pay any extra SMP due

Am I right in thinking my smp should be recalculated and I should be receiving the new minimum wage amount (or 90% of it as it's smp)? Contacted the company accountant and he's said that my smp is based on my earnings during the assessment period and therefore has nothing to do with minimum wage increase...

The accountant is wrong. This is why accountants shouldn't be allowed near payrolls - they know enough to be dangerous.

www.dataplanpayroll.co.uk/payrollblog/general/pay-rises-maternity-pay-confusion-the-alabaster-ruling-debunked

I read it like you do and think that you should get the difference paid to you.

Perhaps your accountant would prefer to speak to ACAS or HMRC

www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints

SMP is 90% of earnings for the first 6 weeks, then a fixed amount regardless of how much you earn. When in February did you go off, as the 90% will have possibly ended before the payment changed to fixed?

Thanks, I've emailed back with the info from the gov website so will see what response is now..

After the first 6 weeks it's £156.66 per week or 90% of awe (whichever is lower), my 90% awe are lower (even with minimum wage increase)

If the pay rise was anywhere between approx week 17 of pregnancy (the start of the relevant period) until the end of maternity leave then they need to recalculate maternity pay

@PlanBea I was past the first 6 weeks when the minimum wage change came in, but I only do 15 hours per week, so my weekly wage with min wage increase should be £142.50, so 90% of that is £128.25 which is lower than the fixed amount of £156.66

Yup refer accountant to alabaster ruling. You should get the increased rate when calculating your average was for the first 6 weeks.

I'm sure alabaster would apply here. If your pay increase under NMW was 10 per week, your SMP should increase by 9. If you got the full SMP rate it wouldn't apply.