Maternity pay

[NoMonNoFunx]

What do you All do after 9 months when maternity Pay stops and you want to take the year.
am I being unreasonable to think we should get paid for the year.
I’ve always worked.

We saved money prior to my pregnancy to cover the last 3 months.
Appreciate not everyone is able to do this.

Use savings, rely on someone else's money or go back to work are the options )

I went back to work at 9 months. No income at all was not feasible.

I had enough in savings before both my pregnancies. I could cover the bills and beyond.

If youve always worked, did you not save first?

We saved up beforehand.

Back in 2001 I got 6 weeks at 90% pay and then 10 weeks on SMP. That was the legal requirement. I had no choice but to return to work when my baby was 16 weeks old (I was the breadwinner and to complicate matters, I was made redundant because the company closed when she was 6 weeks old - fortunately I found a new job which started as my maternity leave was due to end).

Save up to cover the last three months, or go back to work

Saved up and budgeted.
With DS (second baby) I went back part time weekends and evenings when he was 10 months which luckily worked around DH work so we didn't need childcare. That helped loads, although it was shit not seeing DH properly!

I saved while I was pregnant to get through the 3 mo months. I think nine months pay is more than fair enough if you choose to have children. People who don’t, don’t get nine months off being given money.

We were lucky to be able to live on DH salary alone for a short period and some good budgeting. Remember you’re also accruing annual leave and bank holidays while you’re off and can some or all of that before you return, which helps, so was only actually 2 months unpaid before that.

With DC1 we had some savings but had other things going on that wiped out a lot of our money unexpectedly, so we ended up using our credit card and living in our overdrafts for a few months. This time with DC2 we’re much more prepared and saved throughout my pregnancy to cover the unpaid months (plus more).

I saved a little before but not much. We could manage fine on DH’s salary and me on the standard SMP amount.

For the first two months I put away the amount over the normal SMP amount (around £700 a month back then) which was more than £2k so covered the last three months at the same rate.

Plus I had accrued all my holiday which I got paid out at the end of mat leave so that was fine.

Appreciate not everyone will be in this position but I didn’t save beforehand.

With my first I utilised holiday I accumulated through the year and officially ‘ended my mat’ leave after 9m, then used unpaid leave and some holiday to get a bit of pay. With my second I saved until I was ready but also did the same just with less pressure.

We saved approx 3k before we tried for each of our children, as 1k per month for 3 months. Not much, but paid my half of mortgage and a bit towards bills. DH did some overtime, and I did a few KIT days which brought in some extra money.
Plus you accrue AL whilst off so that's a few more weeks off on full pay - I kept all mine for afterwards so had about 6 weeks off on full pay, and went back each time when baby about 13 months old.

Not everyone is in a position to save though - some people are earning just enough to cover rent/mortgage and bills.

We saved to cover the amount of time I wanted off so the baby.

Yes I absolutely think mothers should be supported to take 12 months off with at least living wage

Another option is you can I think ask to have your maternity pay as 12 equal monthly payments, rather than more at beginning and nothing at end. Someone said this works out better from a tax perspective, not sure if that's true though

This isn’t legal if you receive SMP only and an employer doing this is doing so illegally.

It may be possible if you get occupational maternity pay.

It may be beneficial for tax if you are a higher rate payer depending on when your maternity leave starts as you may straddle tax years and lower your effective annual salary but this depends wholly on when you go on leave.

Yes, I meant the OMP part stretched across the 12 months, and yes it works best when across tax years.

A lot of people can't take the year off. I have 3 kids and had to go back after 9 months with them all.

Do you get any benefits from your employer like car allowance as that will continue past the 9 months. Otherwise you could take a chunk of annual leave like someone else suggested so you start getting paid again without going back to work. That should cover a month’s pay.

Save… save while planning to be pregnant. I know it’s easier said than done but going on mat leave we know whether OH salary will be able to keep us afloat for the last 3 months 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️
Although my old company had full pay mat leave for a year (it was finance company but hugely male dominated, so they beefed up their mat pay to attract and keep women in that business)

Saved money specifically to cover for that time period.

I saved. It took 5 years to save for the next one (i'm the breadwinner), and for our 1st DD I went back at 6 months as it made sense financially (DH took shared parental for the next 3 months).

Why should the state support your decision to have children? You know how much your company/the state offers. Fund the difference.