What is everyone's employment maternity ?

[Lovelylovely34]

Didn't realise my work was so bad !!!! I am shocked.
Would love to know what is the 'norm' not including statutory.

16 weeks maternity at full pay
14 weeks paternity at full pay.

I only got SMP.... took the full 12 months off though and returned only part time

6 months full pay, 3 months statutory, 3 months unpaid. I took the 6 months and then did 1 month statutory and had about 2 months of accrued leave and bank Holidays

I work for a medium-sized charity and I get 10w full pay 10w half pay then whatever statutory is. My husband works in financial services and her got 6 months full pay. I know some financial services orgs have started offering 9m full pay for all parents as a day 1 benefit

The norm IS statutory and is pretty good compared to other countries. I've never had any enhanced pay and gone through it 4 times 🤣 I'm in a professional role but private sector naturally.

10 weeks of 90% pay. Then stat.

Er - none. It was 2001 and I was self-employed so got some state Maternity Allowance from 7 mths pregnant and for a few weeks after birth. I sent my baby to a childminder from very early on, had to or give up and go on benefits as a single parent.

Obviously things have improved a bit since then.

I'm very lucky, 20 weeks full pay then SMP. Can hand notice in at end of Mat leave and no requirement to pay the leave back if I did this. I'm in the minority

Four months full pay, four months half then on to SMP up to 39 weeks (so maybe about 7 weeks?) Then nothing for the last part of the year. I also get to "ramp down" and up at each side of leave by working 80% hours for four weeks.

I am thinking of this while planning TTC, my work is statutory. Is there insurance or something you can get to cover for maternity enhanced pay?

Why not just save?

Or do what most sensible people do and move into a role with enhanced pay before TTC

13 weeks full pay
13 weeks half pay
13 weeks smp

Same

I am saving.. and have recently moved jobs, I couldn't find one with enhanced pay and you can't outright ask when applying for roles. So i had to go for the role and then found out its statutory. Now looking to see if there is something similar to income protection that covers maternity too. 🤔

do people still put over time in in the qualifying period before maternity leave?

mine was statutory pay in the early 2000s, 6 months paid then 6 months unpaid if wanted.

there were so many weeks that was 90% pay, then so many on SMP. Everyone I knew worked extra before so that the 90% pay, worked out to be full pay or just short of.

Ours has changed recently so now
90% average earnings - 6 weeks
70% average earnings - 46 weeks
£1000 RTW bonus over 3 months

Paternity is 70% average earnings for 4 weeks

I have no idea what our maternity policy is at work. When I asked for info from HR I got told ‘oh I don’t know. we don’t have anything in place for maternity you’re the first to have a baby in over 10 years’ we’ve had plenty of male workers have paternity but I’ve just been sent a copy and paste off the government’s website for maternity….not very helpful! Also been asked by HR to ask for appointments first thing to avoid disruption to the working day! But when I spoke to my manager she said ask for appointments in the middle of the day out of spite 😂 our HR is a hybrid worker so we’re lucky if we see her once a month, and the way my pregnancy is talked about is strange as well, I told her before Christmas and then we had a private scan, so I just let her know everything went well, and I just got the response of everything’s confirmed then…that confused me, so it clearly wasn’t obvious I was pregnant from taking tests and verbally telling her….not really sure what to do! gonna leave it a few weeks (still early days) and then I’ll speak to my managing director as he’s really approachable see if we can sort something out 🙄

I'm public sector. I get:

6 weeks 90% pay
33 weeks 50% pay + SMP

Do people still put over time in in the qualifying period before maternity leave?

Yes. 5 of us currently on mat leave and we all put in extra hours in the qualifying weeks to boost our mat pay.

Current job: 12 weeks full pay/12 weeks 50% pay/15 weeks SMP

Old job: (where I worked when I had my DC) SMP only

My friends company pays a year at 100% pay but is a very high % male workforce so probably don't pay it out that much. Would be interested to know what their paternity pay is

Statutory

6 months full pay, 3 months 50% pay, 3 months no pay. Upon return a £1000 bonus (to be paid back if you leave within 6 months of returning)

I work for an insurance company.

I get 18wks full pay then stat pay from then on.

ahh looking at SMP, I see it's still only 6 weeks 90% before dropping to smp for 33 weeks.

I suppose I had thought it would have improved. Although it has gone from 6 to 9 months paid so that's better.