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Original poster

How do people manage on smp?

43 replies

San2022 · 24/09/2022 09:10

I’ve just been calculating how much I can expect to get whilst on maternity and it has totally freaked me out! when I go on mat leave I will get full pay for 14 weeks then il be put onto smp which I have been told is roughly £156 a week. This will leave me roughly £900 a month short of what I currently earn 😭 and with the cost of living situation not getting any better how are people actually managing to pay their bills? I know I am going to have to consider cutting unnecessary things out which is all part of becoming a parent and taking on that responsibility and I’m fine about that (I don’t live a luxury lifestyle anyway) but I’m not sure that smp will even cover the basics of mortgage and utility bills!

OP posts:
Skiingwithgin · 24/09/2022 09:17

Not much help now I guess depending how far along you are but we both saved up to make the difference up between smp and what would have been my wage minus commuting costs.

having a baby is relatively cheap but it’s tough if you can’t pay your rent/bills. I feel for you, places should have better paid leave but 14 weeks full pay is more generous than most! I work for nhs and get 8 full then 18 half, a friend works for kpmg and gets 18 full!!!

FfeminyddCymraeg · 24/09/2022 09:19

People save or just cut their cloth accordingly. It’s shocking though.

RewildingAmbridge · 24/09/2022 09:20

As above, we cut back well before I was off and saved a pot that could make up the difference in my income. You can do kit days and you get paid for those, it's a maximum of ten though

PlantDoctor · 24/09/2022 09:21

I am self employed so only received maternity allowance of £145 or something a week, with no period of full pay before that! You're actually much better off than most people - even those who are employed are only legally entitled to six weeks of 90% pay I think?

To answer your question, we largely relied on my husband's salary. Of course with you not working you won't have any work-related costs like commuting and maybe lunches. Even then, of course it's a ridiculously low income! You have to look at your budget and see if you can cut anything. Some people chose to go back to work early because they can't afford not to.

BuffaloCauliflower · 24/09/2022 09:21

If being on SMP brings your household earnings into the threshold, you can apply for UC to help, SMP will just be counted as earnings. Might be worth seeing if that applies to you.

BuffaloCauliflower · 24/09/2022 09:21

You’ll also likely get child benefit so factor that in.

Cuddlywuddlies · 24/09/2022 09:21

Save, do you have a DP?

RewildingAmbridge · 24/09/2022 09:22

I'm public sector and got 9 weeks full pay, 9 weeks half pay then SMP. I lost around 26k by having a baby, and my salary was lower than it is now.

AntlerRose · 24/09/2022 09:22

People save, cut things out, borrow and people return to work earlier than they wanted to.

AnneLovesGilbert · 24/09/2022 09:22

We saved while ttc and then tried to live on one salary once I was pregnant and save as much as possible.

Parker231 · 24/09/2022 09:23

We saved up in advance to cover any drop of income whilst on maternity leave. Thankfully my employer paid full pay for first four months maternity leave and DT’s went to nursery when I went back to work when they were six months old (normal maternity leave then).

AriettyHomily · 24/09/2022 09:23

How many weeks are you, did you not think about it before?!

Will you qualify for child benefit?

My firm now gives a year full pay for maternity, shame when I had my kids it was six week full!

2isontheway · 24/09/2022 09:25

It's shocking and hard...it's very easy for people to say save but not always possible- it would have taken me years of living with no luxuries to save to have 8 months off!
If you're not fortunate enough to have been able to save for whatever reason you either struggle, get in debt or go back to work early 😞

Blanketpolicy · 24/09/2022 09:41

The answer is - they don't survive on SMP.

We planned our finances before TTC . Especially the short term/first 5 years where the costs of maternity leave and then childcare are high. We calculated on a spreadsheet using our combined income, outgoings,MP, child benefit, WTC, childcare vouchers etc and worked out how much we had to cutback/save/use debt, and how long maternity leave we could afford - all before having a child. We saved for years as, iirc, MP in those days was only 6 weeks and I went back to work after 6 months.

Time to do all your sums.

NCHammer2022 · 24/09/2022 09:43

Honestly, we couldn’t. Used about £10k of savings (so that was all of them) and bunged the last month on a credit card. I also had 9 months + annual leave rather than the 1 year + that all my friends who had 6 months fully paid took.

OtiMama · 24/09/2022 09:58

I only get SMP, it is peanuts. I save for the whole pregnancy and before. This time my husband will be able to give more too but first time round it was just SMP, savings and child benefit.

I also didn't take a full year off, just couldn't afford to.

thefatpotato · 24/09/2022 10:25

Saved, and had a DH who could cover everything and then some on his salary.

Hearthnhome · 24/09/2022 10:30

SMP has never been designed to cover a whole wage. The, I think its a bit odd to think the government or employer, should fully cover your wage.

Taking time off work will for most people incur a loss of household Income. If you go below a certain household income other benefits are available.

Duolingolater · 24/09/2022 10:33

You save, baby's father pays and you don't need to take the whole year off

NoSquirrels · 24/09/2022 10:35

What are your household finances - not just yours? Do you have a partner?

satelliteheart · 24/09/2022 10:37

I never understand why people don't think about this before getting pregnant? Unless it was an accidental pregnancy it's really something you should be looking into before ttc. Your company have to have their maternity pay policy accessible and it's easy to look up smp rates on gov website

To be honest op, if you can't survive on smp do you have a plan for paying for childcare? If you're going back full time you're probably looking at £1000+ per month for nursery, so that £900 per month you're down whist on smp will carry on once you're back at work. Don't believe all the bullshit about how cheap babies are, childcare is insanely expensive in this country. You don't mention a partner but hopefully you have one, you'll need to overhaul your finances together and try to make it work, both for mat pay and childcare costs

girlmom21 · 24/09/2022 10:38

You save a shit load beforehand, review your finances to see where baby's dad can subside your loss of earnings and only take off as much time as you can afford.

Ariela · 24/09/2022 10:42

20+ years ago we didn't get anywhere near as good a package as today (6 weeks full pay), so I saved like mad till I had a year's salary in the bank.
What I actually found was I didn't have time to read the books, newspapers etc I'd regularly bought before. I didn't have lunch out at least once a week, and I didn't go for drinks after work at least once a week either - I might have manged the odd coffee morning but that was it. Nor did I have to spend on clothes for work (particularly shoes), commuting to work etc. I also had more time at home to tend the garden and to cook meals, so we ate well on home grown that year. So actually I saved money over the time I had off work with DD1 compared to where I thought I'd be at.

Heyahun · 24/09/2022 10:50

I’m actually worse off now our child is in nursery as it’s so expensive (more than our mortgage) so Living on smp wasn’t actually that bad in the end 😑

randommusings8 · 24/09/2022 10:50

as others above said:
-save in advance (the biggest factor)
-you will probably get some child benefit depending on how much you earn
-cut back where you can (e.g. you probably won't need commuting costs)
-only take off as much time as you can afford, also you will probably accrue about a month annual leave which you can tack onto the end of maternity leave
-some companies payroll can spread out your pay so it's not such a big drop from full pay to SMP

Overall it's not so bad on the first baby- it's a lot worse on the 2nd if you are already down to part time salary and you may have childcare costs 🤯