Redundancy Before Mat Leave - Free Childcare Hours

[IAmAnIdiot123]

Hi Everyone

Posting here for traffic as I am suddenly in panic mode and HMRC closed at 6.

I am being made redundant 30th June but was originally due to start mat leave on 21st July. The company still have to pay my mat leave so I will still pay equivalent tax/NI that I would have paid had I not been made redundant.

Will I lose 15 hours childcare for my 3 year old because I won't be in employment, despite being paid the same for that 9 months that I would have anyway?

Going down a Google spiral, please can someone explain what will happen to the childcare hours for my current child?

Anyone?

15 hours isn’t dependent on employment, 30 hours is. So if you are just claiming the 15 hours and your child is 3 or over, you should be fine.

disclaimer - I work in EYFS but the brains in the office deal with funding.

Agree with above. 15h is a universal offer for all 3 year olds.

Thank you.

Will I lose the 20% towards childcare between now and September, dp will still be working full time.

Just feeling really low and shit right now. I can't believe this has happened! I left a secure job with good prospects becuase I was head hunted, thought it sounded amazing but then 10 months on, I'm being made redundant just before my mat leave was due to start. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

I was hoping to claim the 30 hours but spread out over the year. I was talking to my CM earlier, she was explaining it all to me then I suddenly realised I won't be employed (althought paid the exact same I would have been during thet time) so they will take my half of the 30 hours away.

Have you spoken to Pregnant then Screwed?
https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/

Double check whether the amount of maternity pay you get depends on when your maternity leave starts relative to the end of your contract. I think occasionally it is better to bring forward the start of maternity leave so that it has already begun when your contract ends.

Yeah they weren't very useful tbh, the guy I spoke to hadn't heard of the free childcare hours so told me to call HMRC instead. I think injust have to wait till tomorrow am and call them when they open. Just having a freak out moment and was hoping to get some guidance this evening.
Thank you everyone for your help, it's really appreciated

Thank you, I will look into this. I thought they had to pay me my full mat leave if I qualified for it.

Argh I haven't been out of work for 16 years, I really can't believe this has happened right now!

When you say the company need to pay your mat leave, do you mean you will be on mat leave (which is a specific statutory provision) but without a job to return to, or are they giving you the financial equivalent as part of the redundancy?

Please call Maternity Action - they're staffed by real lawyers, and know this stuff like the back of their hand. You can send an email I think

I'm honestly not sure, they said that they had to pay the SMP but couldn't tell me if they would be paying it in one go or according to my current pay dates. They have advised they will confirm and let me know.

There will be no job for me to return to and they are paying me a settlement aswell as the mat pay.

Thank you, I will contact them tonight!

When is your next reconfirmation date?

17th July 😭

If you currently claim for 30 hours - even if it’s stretched over 52 weeks - your current funding will run until 31st aug. If you are then not eligible, you would be in your grace period which would run until 31/12/23. As long as you are back working the correct number of hours, you could start claiming 30 hours again from January.
does that make sense??

https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice-form/

This is the form!

Yes, I've seen a few things saying end of the following term is the grace period.

Right okay, so as long as I was doing 16 hours a week somewhere from Jan, I should be okay. Because my sons hours start in September as the first term after his 3rd birthday.

I'm going to call HMRC first thing, thank you!

Do take proper legal advice, but my understanding is that you'd be ok either way - your DP is (presumably) eligible through their work and you're eligible because, although having been made redundant, you are still on maternity leave - as evidenced by the fact that you're getting SMP. The only way to get SMP is by being on maternity leave.

Thank you, yes partner is eligible and it was the mat leave or unemployed status I was concerned about. I am.feeling much calmer now, I think everything just hit me tonight after chatting with my CM.

Just FYI, if you get the SMP as a lump sum you’ll over pay tax and NI (and you can’t claim the NI back).

Yes I know, I have asked for them to pay it monthly and am waiting for confirmation but my luck will be they say no!

If you haven’t already got your ‘code’ I would get it now - while you are employed - this needs to be in place before 31/08/23 in order to be eligible in September. I work in a school and we are collecting codes now for September so we can work out eligibility. It might be in Sept you are in the grace period or it might be that your grace period doesn’t start until Jan - it will all depend when you do your code/ the nursery does their check.
I would go onto childcare choices as an employed person and complete the guidance to claim your 30 hour code now.

Thank you, I do have the code! I got it around my sons 3rd birthday. So that is something at least!

Thank you everyone for your help!