FloweryBeanBag or anyone else in the know about Maternity Matters- URGENT

[TotallyAndUtterlyPaninied]

Posting this in Employment and Legal Matters as people on AIBU have suggested.

I'm in quite a tizzy.

I'm an hourly paid lecturer. I don't get paid for the summer holidays. I'm pregnant, due 24th Feb and my qualifying week was 14th November.

My employers have taken into consideration the two pay packets before- September's (which was £0) as I didn't work the summer hols. And October's pay which was £1500 (from the work I did in September). However, I also got my Golden Hello of £2000 in my October pay packet. They have not included this as a 'bonus'. It is described on direct.gov.uk as a 'one off taxable bonus'.

If they include this, I will get over £300 a week for the first 6 weeks, and will then get SMP plus 50% (from the college) for 12 weeks, then SMP on it's own. I could live on this quite easily.

However, if they refuse to include the Golden Hello as a 'bonus', I will only get just over £100 a week for 6 weeks and then SMP alone for the remaining weeks. This would mean I'll have to work until I go into labour, then return to work after 2 weeks or I won't manage the mortgage. I really don't want to do this.

Where do I stand with this?

they should include your bonus in the calc for smp, mine was.

The HMRC website has more info on this e.g. see here. My understanding from this is as follows:

SMP is calculated by reference to a ?set period? which is the period between:
Date 1 - the last normal pay day on, or before the Saturday of the Qualifying Week (QW), this is the 15th week before the week baby due, and
Date 2 - the last normal pay day falling not less than eight weeks before the pay day at Date 1.
If you have a contractual pay day this is always the normal pay day, even if you are paid early in a particular month.

So I think if your last pay day before your Qualifying Week was the October pay packet, your bonus needs to be included.

Talk to your payroll dept. again and take them through this.