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

ACAS has really helpful advice that explains things in a straightforward way, it may be helpful to have a read and understand what you may be entitled to:
https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights

I note other comments that it is your responsibility but I also think that as a manager myself, it is also my duty to be able to either give my employee advice on the company maternity policy or direct them to where they can get more advice and guidance. It’s really bad that you find this out when you are due to be paid and get zero pay, no manager should be that incompetent that they don’t give you the heads up when they first become aware. It’s hardly rocket science is it, it’s crap management. Really feel for you OP. But definitely check out the link and maybe give them a call, you will be entitled to something but maybe not the full amount you expected.

How long have you worked there? If you've been sick for nearly all your pregnancy you must have known there was a risk you wouldn't qualify?

Surely her employer also had a duty to point this out to her seeing as they are the ones paying her?

It's correct, sorry. You're being ill wouldn't have affected it as it's how much you earnt before twelve weeks that counts. Sorry you didn't find out sooner. It was probably a close call and they've only just realised themselves.

Small businesses often pay only SSP when workers are off sick, they used to get about 70% SSP repaid but that was scrapped a few years ago. So any SSP or enhanced sick pay is fully paid by the employer.

Yes, it would be brilliant if all businesses could offer all manner of sick, maternity, holiday, pension benefits above the statutory minimum to their employees but many really can't afford to. And many aren't large enough for dedicated HR and Payroll departments either.

And many people work for small businesses too, so there's the rub. I fully empathise with the OP, I ended up with just some Maternity Allowance too.

Wow some people are being really harsh to a brand new mother, who assumed that since she was employed and filled in the MATB1 form she was eligible for maternity pay! I think the average person would also assume this.

Really sorry for your situation, I don’t know much on maternity pay but try the charity pregnant then screwed they have a hotline with lawyers who can help. Wish you all the best.

Lay off the judging ffs. Poor op has had hyperemesis and now that’s she’s just starting to feel better she’s hit with this. Regardless if it’s true a professional company that cares for employees would have flagged this. It’s outrageously unfair because how are you supposed to work if you have HG! Or any other debilitating pregnancy induced painful diagnosis.
I would have my finance manager in for a talk if a he didn’t flag the issue to me and b) didn’t try to find s solution.

Sympathy op. Congratulations too!

Did you give them 28 days notice re leaving / wanting SMP?

Also were you already taking time off sick when you gave them the form?

Oh gosh OP. I also had HG and was off for months, thought I was back in work (physically if not mentally 🫠) for the weeks that counted for pay calculations.

If you have no joy with your employer, look into shared parental leave. It might be that your partner has a good paternity/shared parental leave policy and that you might be able to swing something that way instead.

I would def say to apply for Maternity Allowance. Yes, you don’t get the 6 weeks at 90%, but the monthly amount after that is the same as SMP. Also, SMP is taxed while MA is not because it is a benefit. I had MA, and it was really easy to apply for and payments started very quickly.

Your boss probably didn’t know, however I would have expected some advice from HR or payroll in advance of your payday, if you work at a company with an HR team. However, YABU because all of this information is freely available on the gov website and it is your responsibility to make your own financial plans.

That said, it is a really stressful and emotional time, and money is a difficult topic in relationships at the best of times; I hope it all works out for you.

Sounds about right OP. Sorry this has come to you as a surprise. Used to be employed in Local Government. No , my manager wouldn't be giving employees a heads up re getting reduced/no maternity pay. Payroll dont contact managers/team leaders to let them know what xyz would be getting by way of salary. Managers get the MATb1 form from employee and forward it on as required and payroll process pay as per the law and their policies. All the info employees require should be in your employers policy documents and the onus is on the employee to check.

You still might be entitled to maternity allowance from the government. Phone citizens advice.

Given the reply, your manger (or someone at your company) knows full well the procedure if you don’t qualify for smp so should have informed you/returned your form at that time. That’s a bit shitty of them as it’s obviously meant you can’t apply for maternity allowance immediately. Do contact cab, they were extremely helpful when I spoke to them and actually got me universal credit to top up my maternity pay for a few months towards the end of my leave.
I was also signed off for months with hyperemesis and can absolutely sympathise. It was the worst time of my life. It thankfully was not my first rodeo and I knew all about ‘qualifying weeks’ so I arranged with my manager to work from home during that period which was essentially me laying in bed with my laptop balanced on top of me, doing the bare minimum. I’m lucky he’s a decent and understanding man. I would have qualified anyway as I get company sick pay but it’s not as much and I wanted 90% of my full pay for the first 6 weeks, not the reduced sick pay.

I agree that everyone should stop being harsh - not everyone works for a large organization with people paid to deal with these issues alone. Round my way the best working T&Cs are found with publicly-funded employers who have nationally-agreed T&Cs.

The geography here, and elsewhere, is too far removed from the central transport network to be economically viable to attract very large employers as well as a large population base to draw their employees from.

Hence, so many people do work for the statutory minimum for small businesses that can cease at any time.

And hyperemis gravidum is the absolute pits.

OP- How are you feeling today?
I am sorry to see some really harsh comments here regarding what you should have done/ you should have known etc- Mumsnet can be know-it-all sometimes & lack empathy. OP is someone with a 10 day old baby- Be kind people.

I didn’t have hyperemesis, just normal pregnancy sickness but lasted till end of second trimester & I felt terrible. It must have been much harder for you OP.
Your employer should have informed you as soon as they found out that you don’t qualify for SMP & then sent Mat1B with guidance on how to claim for Maternity Allowance. TDo ask them when they knew, why didn’t they inform you & why didn’t they send Mat1B back.
But don’t dwell too much on it/beat yourself up for not finding out sooner when you had the other things to deal. Focus on getting your Maternity Allowance paid. Are you able to cope okay till then with help of your partner? Are you eligible for any other benefits of struggling?
It’s okay to get baby blues, but if struggling to cope emotionally please seek help from midwife/GP. Hope in between all this you are enjoying some precious moments with your newborn- they grow up too quick

I don’t think you’ve been stupid. You had Hyperemesis for goodness sake. I had it and must have been lucky not to be off I. The qualifying week. It never crossed my mind to check if there were any loopholes which could prevent you getting maternity pay. Hopefully, the job centre will find you’re entitled to numerous benefits instead. Good luck and congratulations!

I had looked into it personally and made sure I didn't take a single day off for the qualifying week.

However, there was mention of it on our HR maternity webpage and in an email sent over with everything I needed to know. Surely they must have sent you an email or gave you a letter at some point containing everything to expect?

So sorry OP. I really wish more women were made aware of this technicality 😔

Yeah some people even make sure to do overtime!

It’s too late for that.

You should have had a discussion with hr/manager/whoever deals with Mat plans & payroll about your payment breakdown. If this wasn't discussed then there was no maternity plan in place. That's at least how my company works but was up to me to instigate & organise min 15 weeks before leaving.
You must be feeling like shit & I'm sorry. A little bit of advice from your line manager wouldn't have hurt.

If you’ve been off sick you might have been on half pay by the time the calculation was made.
But be careful.
My work tried to put my maternity sickness down as ‘normal’ sickness and I received half pay during the qualifying period so was told I wasn’t eligible for maternity pay.
I knew my rights though and knew maternity sickness isn’t calculated as normal sickness in my work and I was entitled to full pay during this time and so qualified

@Axon she was on SSP. If the other staff are only offered SSP then that's all she'd be entitled to. Being pregnant doesn't offer enhanced pay for sickness if the other staff dont get enhanced pay.

It is put down as pregnancy related absence so the amount of time you're off doesn't get counted against you. It doesn't mean you get better pay than others that are off sick.

That must be an anomaly of your work company sick pay rules. There is no legal requirement to pay enhanced sick pay just because sickness is due to pregnancy. It can’t be taken into account for disciplinary purposes but not for payment. People have tried to challenge the UK’s laws on only paying statutory sick pay in pregnancy and lost.

If I wasn't on salary I totally would have!

My friend got caught out with this also, they didn't tell her until the baby was born! Terrible isn't it

They should have told you at the point they knew -in my small company with external payroll it would have been around a week before payroll paid. When we get rye details back from externals about what to pay each person -the difference to what was expected for you would have been highlighted then.

(As that's probably the point payroll send the matb over to externals company to say oh x is now on maternity leave, here is the form)

I can't recall any pregnant lady asking what she would get (I think I have had 3 in my 7 years doing payroll). I like to think if they also went off sick (didn't happen) i would have said to payroll -oh x is sick so it's normally ssp but do you need to know she is pregnant, is that treated differently?

It's hard in a small company-you outsource to experts doing payroll but you may not be aware of all the info you need to give them.

It's a learning point for the payroll department in your company but probably the outcome doesn't change, you'll just have known a few days earlier.

And someone would hopefully update the staff manual to add a line in about ssp in qualified weeks affecting the calculations.