to get a job, just so i can get maternity leave and pay

[doyouthinkthisisok]

or do you think its fair enough, you've paid in for years and your only claiming what you are entitled to, or do you think its a bit off?

my dd is 17 months old and we have decided to try for another i am a sahm at the moment.
perhaps i should of gone back to my old job, 5 months ago?
the extra money we would get from mat leave would make it some much easier for us.
of course if i got a job next week, i have no idea how long it would take to get pg

"If your only motivation is to get a job to pay you for a while and then give you maternity pay, then frankly your attitude sucks."

Don't most people work - primarily - for the money? What is wrong with that?

In that case, perhaps any woman deciding to try for a family should be forced to resign, keep it simple. Maybe better make it all married women. Avoid the problem completely.

fair point suey2, and I appreciate that it can cause problems for the smaller business, but doesn't the government compensate for that by allowing them to claim back more than 100% of SMP paid provided the company's NI bill is less than £40K? but provided the woman is doing it within the law then there isn't really an argument, harsh though that may be on smaller businesses. I also think that in this day and age there is very little loyalty on both sides, employer and employee (ie there is nothing to stop my employer making me redundant should their circumstance dictate it and they do it within the confines of employment law), although if this employee was a friend I can understand why you felt she was being duplicitous.

Surely employers must be aware that employing women of childbearing age means that there is a likelihood that they will have children at some point....forewarned being forearmed and all that.

It's a very interesting debate though and one I wish I could continue.....but pregnant women need their sleep!

Good luck whatever you decide to do doyouthinkthisisok.

I've just skimmed the thread, but i know someone who did this and ended up pregnant with twins and didnt manage to get the minimum number of weeks "in" to qualify for MA.
Having found out recently I am pregnant again, & I have just returned to work after my ML (didnt qualify for SMP if it matters)I suspect my employer will not be too happy being a small employer; when I decide to tell them.

Haven't read all the replies but in answer to the OP - if you want to work and get a job now, go for it - it might take you ages to get pregnant, after all.

but BT, she night be in the job a good while before she actually is pregnant and in a position to take that leave. It took me two years from deciding to have another baby to actually taking any maternity leave.

and looking back I suppose I was in the same position as the OP. After DH and I were married I moved towns and started a new job knowing full well that DH and I were planning on having a baby as soon as possible . I also needed to work to pay the mortgage in the meantime though. The thought that I was somehow being ethically and morally wrong towards my employer never even entered my head....and it was also two years before I was able to take that maternity leave.

aaah need sleep.

Well I fully intend to do this if I get pregnant soon. The government pays SMP which is all you'd be entitled to if you got pregnant straight away and since you get nothing for staying at home and raising your kids then you might as well try and get a little bit where you can.
PMSL at the if you're only working for the money type comments.

I don't think it's morally wrong, as you and others have said you don't know how long it will take.

I'd consider using contraception at least while you're applying though, even if it's just so you can qualify for some SMP. But it depends on how important it is, and also your age and whether you feel you've got time to hold off for a few months.

For every woman who successfully does what OP is thinking of, there are probably several who miss out on maternity benefits eg by falling pregnant after trying for ages and then changing jobs.

And all these employers who say they don't want to employ women of childbearing age - who else are you going to get as cheaply and exploit as effectively?

From HMRC website regarding employers: "If your total National Insurance payments are £45,000 a year or less, you'll be able to recover 104.5 per cent of the SMP you have to pay. This is to compensate you for the employer's NICs you have to pay on the SMP.

If your total National Insurance payments are more than £45,000 a year you can recover 92 per cent of the SMP you have to pay.
"

I would complete your probation before attempting to get pregnant. Otherwise your employer might find a reason to fail you while on probation.

Assume you wait 6 months before trying. Then you would have been 15 months in your job before having the baby, prehaps longer if you don't concieve straight away.

YABU. Practical maybe, but still unreasonable.

cthea smp is not the issue: you get that back (albeit retrospectively)
Elkiedee you are talking rubbish. I pay well above the going rate to have the best people working for me. My secretaries got a 10% pay rise last year and 5 this. I congratulated my employee on her pg and never told her how much money she lost me in lost earnings

elkiedee is not talking rubbish. Plenty of employers do exploit women of child bearing age. A lot of women like me are disgustingly low paid. The gender pay gap in the UK is a national disgrace.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3765535.stm

My take home pay has fallen due to Gordon Brown abolishing the 10p tax rate. Local authority workers have had a pay rise of about 2% as well as threats to their pension scheme. I work in a school for the the holidays, but I could earn good money in the private sector.

I feel bgger all guilt about taking smp next April. County waste so much money on crp I am sure that they can afford my smp.

I am glad that suey2 does give her employees equal pay, but many employers don't.

but, reallytired that was your choice. Earn much more in the private sector, but not have the school holidays, or work for the government. I also find it very difficult to have sympathy for public sector workers and their final salary pension schemes.
Do you really think that the majority of businesses can be run in term time only?

Well it's quite plain to me that it's very fortunate that the government has imposed laws about maternity leave because if it was up to many of my 'sisters' I fear the pregnant woman would be pursued out of the workplace with flaming torches and pitchforks!

Elkiedee is right and I'm afraid that if you think women in general in the workplace aren't underpaid and exploited then you are kidding yourselves!

To the op - if you intend to work honestly and with dedication for your employer then go for it. Intending to have another baby is not a deception, it's real life.

Do you think that employers should pay less to women of child bearing age incase they get pregnant?

suey2, the governant wants to get rid of public sector final salary pension schemes. Anyway a typical LSA might earn 8K a year. Support staff don't get paid for school holidays. So her final salary pension scheme is 4K if she works for 30 years. Is that something to be jelous of?

I'm far luckier in that I have opportunities to go and work for county with far better pay. Potentially I could do far better out of a final pension scheme if I became a network manager of a large secondary school.

I agree the whole of society is built around the unpaid and underpaid workers, women usually. YANBU to take what you are entitled in this crazy capitalist system.

get a temp job, bank the money and nobody loses- you'll have cash and the empoyer will get you for what tey need- 6 months, a year, Christmas- whatever you decide.

win-win

Peachy a temp job doesn't pay maternity pay, hence the whole idea would be rather scuppered.
There is one point though with redundancies left right and centre who is recruiting staff at the moment anyway ?

If you have temped copntinuously for the qualifying period you do get smp

I have a dd of 18 months, I took a years maternity with her (6 months SMP and 6 months unpaid) I went back and am now 18 weeks pregnant again. I will have been back a year and 2 months when I leave for maternity again.

I dont see the differnce really, as long as you are doing the job properly then it doesn't matter. I dont go to work because I love it but because I need the money. We all work for different reasons (not all because we want to,) but as long as we do the job to the best of our abilities then so be it...

Good luck...

Obviously katie, but does pay and you can bank that money as savings

Plus if she got say an 18 month contract and didnt get pg for a bit she'd be entitled to maternity allowance

But the point of the whole thread is that she wants to be paid for maternity leave which previously was unpaid if you were a temp, maybe she can't "bank" the money, maybe she has bills that she needs to pay and would quite like 3 months at home with her newborn too ??

Could backfire badly - what if there is a delay in finding work, you don't get pg straightaway, you hate the job but feel stuck just in case you suddenly do and have to shell out a small fortune in childcare in the meantime. Your risk I suppose .

There's nothing wrong with making alternative suggestios, esp. ones that can lead tp mat allowance- aka an income

haven't read all the thread so may be repeating someone, but if you take a job to get mat leave then have no intention of returning you get v little anyway, have to pay it back, so what's the point?