Just been told I'm not entitled to maternity pay at my work after my baby has been born?

[elm26]

Hello

I emailed my manager today as have received no maternity pay today (it's our payday).

Why wasn't I told this when I handed in my MATB1 form at 18 weeks pregnant??

I'm completely blindsided.

She said the following;

"To qualify for SMP, you must have been earning on average an amount which at least equals the lower earnings limit which applies on the Saturday at the end of your qualifying week. The lower earnings limit (LEL) is the amount you have to earn before you are treated as paying National Insurance contributions.

The accountants have advised your average weekly earnings were not high enough to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay.
I have a form that will be sent by recorded post together with your MATB1 which I am obliged to return so you may make an application for Maternity Allowance."

I was signed off sick for most of my pregnancy due to Hyperemesis, is this what she means regarding my average weekly earnings were not high enough?

Please help, I'm so anxious now and haven't told DH yet 😢 why wasn't this discussed with me before?!

Is this correct? I have no idea about these things.

Thanks in advance x

They backdate child benefit by up to three months.

Did they not pay you because you were on pregnancy related sickness? That's not legal...

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this whilst also juggling a brand new baby. It's really complicated and it sounds like your company have not been at all helpful.
Please do get some external advice rather trying to navigate this yourself.

She got SSP (£109.40 per week) and that is less than the minimum amount you need to earn to get paid for SMP (£123 per week)

Thanks. Is that her standard contractual sick leave? Or is she entitled to enhanced pay for a period of time? If the latter, then her employer may still be in the wrong. If the former then it's unfortunate and frustrating but she'll have to apply for maternity allowance. Though I think a complaint because of the lack of information given to her, causing delays is warranted.

You can also now apply for child benefit online. Which is much quicker than the paper form.

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/how-to-claim

Was that for the entirety of the qualifying weeks? Even a week or two of full pay may have got you over the earnings threshold.

Good point!

Yes it is.

they should have worked out whether she was entitled to SMP and if not, informed her and issued her with form SMP1 so she could make a claim for maternity allowance.

She may be able to do this now but there will be a delay obvs

And yes unfortunately as SSP is lower than the lower earnings limit it will drop your earnings for SMP purposes. It wouldn’t have changed your entitlement but it’s pretty poor that they haven’t told you or issued the SMP1 until now.

I’m so sorry OP. Hyperemesis is awful and hard enough to deal with as it is. Sorry you’ve now got another battle to get though. Hope you manage to get it sorted and things feel easier soon ❤

I thought pregnancy/ breastfeeding were protected characteristics?

The SMP1 should have been issued within 28 days of your request to take SMP or within 28 days of the birth, whichever is earlier.

I had HG in my pregnancy too so I know how horrendous it is. I am so sorry this has happened. The people that have made short comments literally just don't get it so try not to take it to heart.

What does that have to do with OP’s query?

I think they paid her SSP?

And no you haven’t been stupid OP you’ve got a tiny baby and been really sick. Cut yourself some slack x

Please don’t feel awful Op. You were really ill it’s understandable you weren’t on top of things. It sounds like you work for a small firm who outsource payroll so no one to advise you. It’s totally different to working for a large company.
I’m shocked that a pregnancy related illness can make you ineligible for stat maternity pay. It’s definitely something that should be wider known/campaign. Obviously affects poorly paid workers the most - people working for bigger companies and civil servants/local authorities/nhs/teachers etc will get paid sick leave so not be in op’s situation. It’s workers only eligible for ssp who are hit by it.

Op says she works for a small firm who only pay ssp when you are off sick. She got ssp. That’s legal. There’s no requirement to pay in full when off sick.

It is SO SHIT that people who are sick don't qualify for maternity. OP I wouldn't have thought to check this either because who made up this stupid bloody rule?! All these people saying you should have checked clearly didn't read how ill you were.

I am really shocked for you OP.

How is it that a person can read OP's post, someone who is in early days of mat leave, likely spending all her time looking after a newborn and has had the shock of finding out she's not getting paid despite believing this was sorted, then decide it'd be really helpful to write a patronising post about what she did/got?

Information that is completely irrelevant to OP's predicament, so at best it's condescending at worst a smug brag.

OP, I am sorry this happened to you. Personally I think your employer let you down. They had the bonus to give you information of your mat pay once you had submitted the form, very bad practice they didn't. Hope some advice here is actually helpful and not too stressful to find some support.

@elm26 Don't despair! You can claim Maternity Allowance as long as you were employed for 26 weeks out of the last 66 weeks before your baby was due. Also, you can use any 13 weeks of payslips from that time for your rate. So that means that if you were on full pay prior to being so sick, you can use your full pay wage slips to get the full amount of Maternity Allowance. So all you'll miss out on is the difference between the Maternity Allowance rate and 90% of your normal wage.

So all you'll miss out on is the difference between the Maternity Allowance rate and 90% of your normal wage, for 6 weeks.

Totally agree with this, to me it just feels like another punishment for working pregnant women.