September 2019 #7

[easterbuns1]

I get nervous when it's so close to post 999..:

Just glad I'm only one in the office today as actually sat crying at my desk because I just feel so useless now. We will be £500 short a month and I haven't a clue where to find that

Thats really crap twittle i didnt know about the KIT days! My employer has still not confirmed i need to claim MA

Could your DH pick up any extra work?

DECAF he can potentially do extra shifts at his work place but they are really limited that time of year and wouldnt get us close to the £500. Plus with his shift pattern it makes getting a 2nd job pretty much impossible (we looked at this before). And he cant get a new job because he has 0 qualifications and done nothing but this job his whole life.

The KIT days are a real shocker because I foolishly assumed I'd be able to make up the shortfall in money by doing 2-3 KIT days a month

Yes i am surprised about it too! That was my next suggestion to you!

Yes twittle it does seem strange they expect employers to pay the 90% for the first few weeks when they aren't. I don't understand why.

I don't think KIT days are enforceable? The policy my work place has reads like I would need to agree with manager if I want them, otherwise I just don't have them.

I'll just have to go back to work in November as we can only afford 2months losing £500 as we only have £1k in savings (I know I know, stupid for not saving before a baby but bloody spent everything on our first home).

Bloody hope I can get the baby straight onto a bottle 🤞

Oh sorry I haven't read about the kit days properly. So I'm only getting MA does that mean I definitely won't do KIT days?

They aren't enforceable Whisky no, it's up to you and your employer to agree if you want to use 10 days KIT (or 20 if you're doing SPL) but they're a great way to top up your incomings when SMP is so low. However, there's no choice to do that if getting MA because you're not entitled to SMP

Yeah Whisky that's right (sorry cross post!) So if you get MA, you can't do KIT days because if you work any shifts then it removes your right to MA. At least that's how I'm reading it?

Jeez right, didn't know that!

@Stroan have you heard of Spatone? My MW recommended it to me as much more, ahem, gentler on tummies! I bought it from Amazon at a decent price.

So sorry to read about the hard time lots of you are having - especially regarding SMP/MA - does anyone feel it’s made deliberately difficult to have these things confirmed ahead of time?

So does the MA stop completely or just for the week or 2 you do the KIT days? Cause if it just is over the period you work the KIT days it would still work out better for me to be paid the kit days. Obv not if it stops it completely.

Tefiti2 i think the maternity allowqnallowance form is such a sodding faff and waste of paper. Its like 15 pages long. I dint see why they dont just look at the last 66 weeks of tax I paid via HMRC. Surely they could just hook up with the government gateway and check, see I paid tax so must've been earning and then pay the sodding MA that way. Simplify the process. Argh

Whisky stops it completely and ends your period I think...

Tefiti it is horribly confusing, glad I am looking into it now at least. I cant actually send off for it until a have 4 months worth of pay slips though! So have to wait until August to apply!!

@whisky I got a £2k NI bill cos NHS didn’t put it through my payslips one year- if they can chase me for that then they must be able to tell I’ve paid enough NI to get MA.

I’ve had the 22 page MA form sat under a pile of books in its envelope so it squishes it into an a5 envelope and therefore cheaper postage #tightarse

Och. That's just fucking miserable isn't it. Hardly helping women in the workplace!

Exactly @Moraxella. It's a joke. And I did laugh when I realised thatbyet, you have to pay the postage for the form. Ugh everything about that process has just bloody annoyed me.

It’s going recorded, if they lose that matb1 form my brain will explode.

Lol yep definitely!

yup it is shocking isnt it Whisky ! We are already at a disadvantage but cant keep our bloody toes in the work place without being penalised.

Might write to my MP actually...

...and I have just found out the night nursery has closed, the only one I found in the area.

@TwittleBee £500 per month - is there any way you could trim household bills / spending back by £250 from now, so then that £250 saved now can go towards the then £250 shortfall further down the line? Sorry, not sure if I've worded that correctly?

Every little bit to help sort of thing - food shopping, bills, any tv subscriptions, charity (sorry but needs must) and even pension contributions on a very temporary basis just so you could have those couple of extra months.

It's all a pile of shite to be fair. Box ticking to say they make it easier for women to stay / go back to the workplace.

The most hypocritical bit in my opinion is when free childcare doubled from 15 hours to 30 for over 3s - what universe do they think jobs are held open for 3 years whilst we wait for childcare to become affordable? Why not just extend the 15 hours down from birth - school rather than no help until 3 and then all of a sudden, we'll done, you scraped by for 3 years, here, have some help!! 🤷‍♀️ grr

It is really crap. I havent even printed the mat allowance form yet due to work not confirming anything. They had 28 days to confirm with me and that is up at the end of the week. So, tick tock! Thinking of starting my claim from August as i will get a June sick pay wage and a July part sick pay part holiday pay wage. Then i will get paid until end of April.

Twittlebee, this link says you SHOULD be able to do KIT days

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/keeping-in-touch-days/