0 hour contract and maternity pay ??

[tashajade22]

Hi I currently work for the NHS as a project manager earning 21,000 p/a. My contract however is 0 hours. Me and my partner are planning on having a baby in the near future. I just wondered if anyone knows my rights to maternity pay on a 0 hour contract. Also if I am not entitled what benefits would I be entitled to. My partner roughly earns the same amount as myself. Any help would be really appreciated as I do not want to speak to HR about the maternity matter as I am afraid they may cut my usual 40+ hours a week down to 0.

I don't know about the maternity pay , but if you weren't entitled to NHS maternity pay you would most likely be entitled to maternity allowance if you have work for 26 weeks out of the previous 66 weeks prior to your due date. I think it is paid at a similar rate to SMP.
If you did not returm to your job you may be able to claim a small amount of child tax credits if you joint household income is going to be less than £26k.

It should be worked out by your earnings in a 12 week period up to the 15th week before you're due rather than the number of hours you're contracted, If they're more than ~£140 a week you should get smp at 90% of your earnings or ~£140 a week which ever is lowest, but it's worth checking your contract or hr / payroll and seeing what they say with regards to maternity leave and pay as you may have a better deal than that.

Eligibility to smp is basically: be employed for at least 26 weeks by 15 weeks before your EDD (so you need to have been employed for a week before you get pg); and have average weekly earnings during weeks 18 -25 of your pg of at least £128ish. You don't have to notify your employer until your 25th wk of pg (although it's recommended that you notify them ASAP so they can do a RA and you have certain protections) so you could wait until the last moment to protect your SMP.

Full info is on gov.uk about stat entitlements.

If you have a look on your intranet under the HR section there should be a maternity leave policy that will outline the different levels of pay depending on your service. When you say you have a 0 hours contract do you mean you're doing something similar to Bank work where you submit weekly time sheets? If so, in my trust you wouldn't be eligible for Occupational Maternity Leave but I think you would be eligible for Maternity Allowance which is similar to SMP. I would ring HR because this is something they deal with frequently so they'll know all the answers. Don't panic about them cutting your hours, they would be very very unlikely to do that because they probably have hundreds of other staff members to deal with and your enquiry will be one of many that day.

Hi, Firstly thank you all for your comments ! TwigletLola I am doing bank work but have guaranteed 40 hours + per week and have done for the past 18 months. I have spoken to HR and once I fall pregnant they will then work out whether im entitled to SMP or maternity allowance. Thanks again.