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.

Shamelessly Marking
It was always thus 🤷

I work for a company where salaries and bonuses are generally excellent but it’s only SMP

I don’t plan on being pregnant for the whole of my career though, it’s generally just a short blip and I save about £8-12k each time to cover for being off for 9 months

I’m on my last maternity leave (that I plan to have now) so can’t see a companies enhanced maternity package being any more of a selling point to me

@staticelle I think that's quite unusual for all those details to be online unless public sector. Things are changing though as big private companies use it for PR so you can google eg some law firms have now introduced 3 months paid paternity leave. In the private sector you'd be very lucky to get around 6 months full mat pay.

I would never ask about sick pay or mat pay in an interview but each to their own.

There's a cut off and it's simply bad luck. If the date keeps being changed to suit people there'd be no point in any of it so just accept it. You knew you'd be on SMP. Why complain, you can't have earned a high salary?

SMP is paid at 90% for the 1st six weeks so employers can use furlough to cover up to 80% of that cost or if they have enhanced mat leave policies. Seems fair and reasonable to me

90% of salary that is

You're lucky you're getting paid.. I've just been told my work have to make redundancies of upto 5 people.. I could be out of a job soon and you're complaining that you're only receiving 600 a month on mat pay.. seriously?

I get nothing! I am self-employed, but a sole trader so cannot get any of the loans. My career has been halted with no prospect of earning (for complicated reasons but basically due to the way the government pay me as a contractor) for at least 12 months...last year my income was £50,885 so don’t get any assistance from the self employment scheme...£885 last year means I don’t get £7500 this year. I live to a budget based on my expected income and now have nothing! Am also not eligible for UC due to the way I am paid.
There are winners and losers in every scheme but they do all seem to be adversely affecting women who have the main burden of childcare and associated expenses.

I’ve only read your couple of posts OP, not everyone else’s. You haven’t said why you started mat leave in March? Is that what you had always planned? In which case it’s just bad timing. Or is it because you were told by your employer that you had to? In which case I would have argued that point at the time as they can only MAKE you start your mat leave early if you’re within so many weeks of your due date, AND it’s because you can’t go to work due to medical reasons (ie if you were admitted to hospital early or put on bed rest etc).

Sending you home after being put in the at risk category and starting your mat leave shouldn’t have happened. If they could not provide a safe working environment for you, you should have been sent home on full pay until your mat leave was due to start.

I could work from home from the point I was at risk so worked and got paid as normal, then the business furloughed most employees at the start of April, so I was then too. But I was well aware that this would still be superseded by my mat leave, which starts in 2 weeks time. My company made that clear and I wouldn’t have expected anything different.

If you were made to take your mat leave early, look up ‘pregnant then screwed’ - they have free legal advice available and can advise you if you can take this any further.

Shit happens. I am at of an age where i have been robbed of five years pension

Nothing about Coronavirus is fair OP. Be thankful you are receiving any payment whatsoever, and that for now you are employed as many people are eligible for nothing and many jobs will be lost.

My husbands employer has already decided to make everyone on maternity leave, and who is furloughed redundant as soon as they can. It will be done in a way that escapes any fall out but they have made some awful cutthroat decisions including this.

Your better off than me. I'm on SSP because my workplace won't furlough me and I'm on the vulnerable list so shielding and not my choice. My employer paid me the sum total of £94.25 today as they have got my money wrong I may not get the other £300 until next month. I also have a disabled child to support. Surely you budgeted for this before the pandemic happened?

Try living on the state retirement pension!!

You are safe at home. Yes it sucks when changes are made but that's life and it could be a whole lot worse. If all your going without are luxuries then you are better off than a lot of others and this probably isn't the ideal place for a bit of a whinge. I'm sure lots felt like that when the benefits system was overhauled. They need a cut off date and sadly you didn't make it. As harsh as it might sounds it's life and you need to suck it up.

It’s fair because you were going to be on this anyway

I’m on £188 a month furlough pay if that’s a helpful perspective? (Minimum pay retail worker) .

I’m currently minus £-495 in my bank right at the top of my £500 overdraft. I don’t really care who knows that (shrug emoji).

I have two young kids.

Many people are suffering financially right now.
Be relieved you have £600 a month coming in, I’d say.

@Lumene I just wanted to check if your friend has looked at Maternity Allowance - if she's up to date with NI payments she should be able to claim MA (same rate as SSP)

But lets just say for example you started a job and a colleague started a month after you. You both had the exact same job and contributed equally. Then they got a pay rise and you didn’t.

The example you've given is completely irrelevant. Completely

How far back exactly should the new provision go? What about the people who went on maternity in February? Or maybe January? How about October 2019 just to be sure we cover everyone who may have been exposed to Covid-19.

And now to the crux of the matter - what you're actually saying is that you want to benefit/profit from the misery, death, disease etc that is ravaging our planet. Why? You are getting what you were and are entitled to. You haven't and will not lose a single penny. As you yourself said - you can afford it.

People have died, are dying, will die - horribly. It's terrifying. A horrible, scary, battling death. In their 10s of thousands. Children are starving, missing out on their education, freedom, GCSEs, A Levels, Degrees. Families are locked up, away from 'prying eyes' literally fearing for their lives - a living hell. Some people don't know where the next meal will come from. Loads of people have lost jobs. Thousands of small businesses (and larger ones!) are going under

Our key workers are being forced to risk their lives every day and the lives of their families - or live away from them for months.

I've been to two family streamed funerals in the past week. Unable to console, support or simply hug my mother in her all consuming grief.

I cannot believe people want to profit from what's going on. It's disgusting.

STFU and take a look at yourself.

I am a waspi. Born the wrong year. ive had 6 years of my pension stolen from me. Thats life sadly

Enjoy your mat leave. The money for all this furlough and government assistance will have to come from somewhere at the end of this... I imagine seeing a rise in income tax next year..

I am 60 almost my only income comes from some tiny retail units , not getting anything from the government or my tenants, even though they got the 10 thousand check
Just got to suck it up buttercup

Stop moaning!!!! You are lucky ... I didn't get anything (and didn't expect it) when I had my kids. Some people always want more!!

Were you feeling angry before you learned about this? Hopefully no one close to you has been taken ill and you're having a lovely healthy baby?
There are plenty of people in a far worse situation, I'd choose gratitude over a sense of entitlement any day.

You have completely misunderstood what they’re doing. There were a number of pregnant women furloughed which would have impacted their pay. All the change is that if you were furloughed your maternity will be calculated on normal pay not furlough pay. No one is better off.

Okay, there's been a misunderstanding somewhere, either with how you have interpreted the situation or how your employer has applied it. If you go on maternity leave, the scheme does not allow for furlough to enhance your pay. An employer can use the furlough scheme in order to claim any contractual pay that you receive but not SMP. Normal SMP generally allows for 90% of pay for 6 weeks and then the statutory rate for the remainder. If they are doing something different then they are taking a risk with HMRC so I suspect they're not. Possibly someone has been placed on furlough prior to mat leave?

Those on maternity leave incidentally are not protected from redundancy. If there is a 'suitable alternative ' vacancy however, they are automatically entitled to it.