Not been paid maternity pay

[BasoonerOrLater]

NC and posting for traffic, sorry!

Little bit of a complex situation. I gave birth on Sunday to DD2. Most of my pregnancy I was off with HG. I handed in my MATB1, was given a schedule of my maternity pay etc and my expectation was it would start on my due date, as notified - end of June pay was expected sick pay.

Two days before giving birth (ie over a week into July) I was sent a letter stating in fact my maternity pay was triggered at the start of June (4 week rule). I know employers CAN do this, but given the timing (date on the letter reflected date received), lack of notification, maternity schedule and the fact my end of June pay was sick pay, not maternity pay, I had assumed that this wasn’t being triggered for whatever reason.

I think in light of the above it shouldn’t have been triggered but, if it has, I am worried about getting two months in one lump sum due to NI and SL payments so obviously I don’t want this to happen. It also means effectively I haven’t and won’t be paid maternity pay for 8 weeks after the start of my apparent maternity leave.

I am a very anxious and highly strung person who is 3 days post partum, yet cannot stop worrying about this. Obviously I have contacted everyone (HR, manager, external payroll provider) but nobody is responding to me.

Where can I go from here? I just want to stop thinking about this and focus on my baby, but either I’ve not been paid maternity pay (and don’t know when I will be), or I will be paid and suffer financially due to back payments plus lose a month of my maternity leave.

Obviously didn’t mean to enable voting 🤦‍♀️

As far as I understand it, your maternity leave can commence when you choose (say if you go off at 34 weeks and haven't had the baby by then), it can commence when the baby is born, or if you have any sickness in the 4 weeks preceeding the due date (I think?) they can trigger your mat leave then?

Maternity leave is triggered at 36 weeks if you are off sick. That is standard for most companies that they do this.

So my choice was my due date, having not heard anything to the contrary (and being sent in response to this a payment schedule which commenced on m due date) I assumed this is what was happening until I got a letter starting it had in fact been triggered five weeks ago.

@ItsSnowJokes I understand that, but that decision was made 5 weeks after that 36 week trigger date and I wasn’t paid maternity pay that I would have been entitled to.

So what did you receive in June's pay? Just sick leave pay? Are you on enhanced or statutory maternity pay? If you receive full pay sick pay you may end up having to pay some of it back if it is more than the maternity pay you should have received.

@ItsSnowJokes No, exhausted both contractual and SSP, my pay was actually next to nothing (around £100, I think I had like one day of sick pay remaining for June).

Maternity pay on the other hand would be enhanced, around £4k before deductions.

What does your June payslip say?

Cross post. If you've been on unpaid sick for June then they can't claim your mat pay started at 36 weeks.

You need to speak to whoever is running your work payroll.

If it was me I would be recalculating your June pay to replace the SSP with maternity pay, and making the appropriate NI and SL deductions in June. I would then pay you the difference on the next pay run, but I would add it to your July pay as additional net pay not gross.

Not all software will allow this though, if they close off the month and can't recalculate then yes the difference will be added to your July gross and might affect your NI and SL deductions.

Don't sit there worrying, pick the phone up and ask! Oh and congrats 🙂

Thanks @DashboardConfessional - that was my thought too. Is there somewhere (legislation or similar) I can use to demonstrate this? Have searched but to no avail and not that easy whilst trying to deal with a newborn!

@HollywoodTease Thanks - believe me I have been trying! I have been contacting everyone I can think of, to the point that they obviously think I’m unhinged, but have either been met with silence or “we will follow it up”. HR blame the external payroll, external payroll won’t speak to me at all as I’m “not their client”.

You say in your OP that you have been off sick for the majority of your pregnancy, we're you on paid sick leave or SSP?

I'm wondering if there's a possibility you don't qualify for mat pay

workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/calculating-maternity-pay/

"Being on sick leave can affect your entitlement to SMP. For SMP, your eligibility and the amount you receive depends on your earnings during the reference period. If your employer offers fully paid sick leave, this is unlikely to affect your eligibility for SMP or the amount due.
However, if your employer offers only partially paid sick leave or you need to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), this may reduce the amount of SMP that you would receive.
If you are on Statutory Sick Pay (currently £99.35 per week) for the whole reference period, you may be ineligible for SMP because your earnings will fall below the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week).
If you don’t qualify for SMP because you’ve been on Statutory Sick Pay, you may qualify for MA instead."

I think you'd be better talking to ACAS or CAB for specialist advice
Or posting in legal thread in MN

We MNers in AIBU really don't know this level of complexity on maternity pay. And when Mat leave can be triggered instead of sick leave pay towards the end before due date. We know the rough rules but not the detail and expeditions

In U.K. ACAS is free and a great source of U.K. employment advice

Are you U.K. OP?

I thought sickness related to pregnancy after 36 week was not company specific. It's on the gov and acas website - your company are bound by this, it's not your or their choice.
The fact they were slow realising is poor but can't be undone.

Hopefully someone HR on MN can confirm this for you.

The enhancements to your maternity sound generous, if you're not going to struggle from it being four weeks earlier then please don't waste your energy stressing.
If you are going to struggle because of the delay then get onto the HR to sort it out immediately. Use language to trigger them, they need to look after you and minimise stress (that should have been in your risk assessment!)

Exceptions not expeditions - I don't even know why my phone knows that word to change it to! 🫣

@FatAgainItsLettuceTime I had both which is now exhausted, but I was still receiving contractual sick pay over the threshold on the 25th week, it only ran out last month - and I would be entitled to occupational mat pay anyway which is full pay for the first 6 weeks

So sounds like they owe you money for may leave if they triggered its start belatedly over 5 weeks ago

I beg you to contact ACAS for advice and post in legal matters in MN for employment mat leave advice - all depends on a number of variables . There are some solicitors and barristers in these threads. They'll tell you that but say they can't give specific advice as a lawyer but not your lawyer etc however it'll be useful stuff to know if you say which county you live in and how long working etc

We don't know enough in AIBU and you'll get guesstimates and little useful reliable advice

Mat leave not May leave

@Tiani4 Have contacted ACAS so hoping they will get back to me soon - really I just want this to be sorted so I can forget about it and focus 100% on the baby but unfortunately my brain isn’t hardwired that way

@Thack What’s annoying is that actually if they had said in good time, and paid me properly, I wouldn’t have had the issue with it being triggered at 36 weeks - and if that’s out of their hands anyway then fine but I will suffer financially (to the tune of circa £700) if I end up having two months rolled into one which just doesn’t seem fair to me. I’ve tried to get HR to take my seriously - and frankly I find it incredible that they would not take the mental well-being of a woman who has literally just given birth seriously - but I just cannot elicit a proper response.

Thanks @Tiani4, I do see what you’re saying. I think my initial post was more looking for where do I go from here (like who in the company to contact, organisations etc) so that I can get someone in the company to give me an answer and then I can forget about it

I think you need to slow down and let payroll sort it out.
They can and have started your leave at 36 weeks. You will be entitled to Mat Pay for the last 5 weeks but is now owed to you.

If your payroll is outsourced it's possible that the payroll provider wasn't given the information in time to amend the June pay run so this is now being sorted out in the July pay run - happens all the time.

I wouldn't speak to you directly as you aren't the client but I would send the client an email explaining the situation & what I was doing to sort it that they could simply forward into you.

But yes any pregnancy related illness at 36 weeks or over triggers the start of your maternity leave.

Are you in a union OP? This stuff is usually easily sorted when your union gets involved.

Yes @Psychonabike , good suggestion - although I really do hope by the time I’ve been assigned a caseworker, had initial contact with them etc it would be sorted! But will sort the referral tonight