So angry! How unfair is this !!!

[SilverFox90]

So I went on maternity in March and only receive statutory maternity pay, so £600pm.
Now the government have decided that anyone who went on maternity on or after 25th April can be furloughed and receive 80% of their normal wage !

How is that fair. I’m here struggling and others will be receiving 80% of their normal pay ! 😡

Anyone else in the same position or think that this is wrong ?
Okay, good for those who are lucky enough to be receiving it but why give one without the other.

This isn’t unfair at all. There has to be a cut off somewhere; it’s just bad luck it doesn’t include you.

You haven’t lost anything as you weren’t expecting it anyway, so stop being jealous of those who have been lucky.

@viques
Thanks for that, but just to make you aware I’m not a single parent. I have a partner who because of all of this has lost a considerable amount of money !

I don't I magine you were particularly well paid if your employer puts you straight on SMP! Most half decently well paid job provides something above SMP for a period

The two don't go hand in hand at all poster, what you've assumed is rubbish, my company are fabulous payers but we only pay SMP as we are a small business. My previous company where I did go on mat leave from were also not bad payers and again, SMP only, they were also a corporate large company too.

I would like them to backdate it 15 years. It’s so unfair.

Congratulations on your baby. Enjoy your maternity leave.

You are not getting any less than you would've done covid or not though so makes no difference to you. It is what it is.

Life doesn’t always work the way you want OP and there has to be a cut off somewhere. There will be people who have missed e cut off by days and it’s the way it is.

I went on mat leave last year. I was paid some enhanced mat pay and some statutory but I ended up only taking 6 months as my baby died before she was born. I don’t think that was fair either but it’s the way it is.

Perhaps try to be grateful for what you do have which is what we should all be doing right now.

If I’d been born six hours earlier, my state pension would have been paid four months sooner. You win some, you lose some.

my company are fabulous payers but we only pay SMP as we are a small business

Same here. We pay excellent hourly rates but we are a small, new business and simply couldn't afford to pay everyone more than SMP. We would have collapsed before we got off the ground if we had done that

@DrinkingInTheNightGarden

Well paid positions and a decent SMP package very very often go hand in hand.

Of course they do. Firstly - someone in a well paid position is going to expect it as part of their package.

And your “fabulous” paying employer is a minority and has a daft approach. Fabulous pay but then once on maternity leave, slashed pay, which is likely to cause resentment and mean women start looking elsewhere when they approach the time they are thinking about starting a family.

Eh? But surely you're getting exactly what you were expecting to get?? Why should someone else getting something nice take anything away from you. Very selfish attitude to have

But you're on maternity leave, why would you expect the government to pay you furlough pay when you're not furloughed

^This

You're being greedy and jealous, you don't sound like a nice person.

@PrimeraVez I can't tell if this is a joke. Are you being sarcastic?

At the moment furlough ends around end of june I think, is that when your maternity leave would end? I think this part of the scheme is aimed at women who are going of on earlier maternity leave than planned as they are considered high risk (though not enough to be sheilding) and then once the furlough ends they will be on their normal maternity leave. It also wouldn't be fair for women to be on SMP from 26 weeks pregnant when they feasibly could have been earning their full wage until 37 weeks, and have to cut their maternity leave short at the other end, leaving 5their baby much sooner than planned all because of Covid 19. Not much of this situation is fair, it's hard to treat everybody the same all of the time with so many different circumstances involved. Comparison is the their of joy. Enjoy your time with your newborn and congratulations

@PrimeraVez I can't tell if this is a joke. Are you being sarcastic?

Same!

@Lumene - your friend should claim Maternity Allowance if she isn't eligible for SSP, advise her to look it up:
www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility.

2 year qualifying period for the extra mat pay and they said because I'd had 2 contracts over 3 years it didn't count. So SMP for me.

Get a grip @Bringringbring12

Most half decently well paid job provides something above SMP for a period

It's actually quite rare to get a great maternity package in the private sector. The bigger companies like law firms or banks tend to have the better schemes as part of the keeping women in work pr exercise they have to do.

sorry OP, my crystal ball must be a bit cloudy tonigh as I didn't have access to your partners financial situation.

I do hope you were just as indignant and angry on behalf of the 3.5 million women born in the 1950s * who were shortchanged at very short notice by the government over their pension entitlements , the financial , social and in many cases health consequences of which will be with them for the rest of their lives . You at least are no worse of than you were when you planned your maternity leave and have been given exactly what you were promised.

• not me , but I know many women who have been affected.

@bunny

What a strange mentality.

I know someone who works in an essential service. To keep social distancing there are 6 employees running a place that usually has 30 staff. The 6 are working their backsides off for no extra pay while the other 24 are furloughed and being paid 80% for time off at home. The 6 could complain that it’s unfair but they’re not.

There are people who have gone from earning a decent freelance who are now getting absolutely nothing because they started their freelance business too recently.

You don’t have to look far beyond your own nose to see that you are fortunate that at least you are receiving the pay you expected to be getting at this point in time.

There has to be a cut off and TBH you are protected against redundancy when on maternity .
You are no worse off than you would of been if CV hadn't happened .Is it really appropriate to try and take advantage of a pandemic to get more money.

When I had my baby I was entitled to nothing as I had been out of the workforce for just over a year and as I had not needed to claim benefits I fell into some sort of black hole, despite having paid NI, tax etc for 15 years. That’s just the way it is.

I don't think I'd be thinking I'd won the pools if I'd gotten furlough on maternity - that means your job is even less secure when you look at returning, erm no thanks.

Op, I’m also sorry you’re not profiting from this as some others are and totally understand your jealousy.

Also I’m not being funny but the woman who lives next 2 me is apparently gonna get 60k cos her hubby died working on a COVID ward! What a fuckin joke! How is that fair??*
“Also I’m not being funny but the woman who lives next 2 me is apparently gonna get 60k cos her hubby died working on a COVID ward! What a fuckin joke! How is that fair??

Primeravez

I can’t decide whether you think it’s too little or too much? It’s presumably “death in service” payment, which is a multiple of final salary. Most public sector workers benefit from this. It makes up a little for the poor pay, compared to similar private sector jobs.
Either way, I expect your neighbour would rather have her husband.