Maternity pay/leave

[Dandansmummy]

Hi there, was hoping to get some help and clarification on my maternity leave and pay. I work in a secondary schools and in September started at a new school, the HR department have confirmed my 3 years service from the previous school will be carried over. She has written down for me the set up for maternity pay which is: 10 weeks at 90% (offset SMP), 20 weeks at 50% (and SMP) and then 9 weeks SMP. The parts I am confused about is the parts she has put in brackets, surely I won't get 50% plus SMP??? And what does offset mean?

The HR lady is notoriously hard to get hold of so if anyone here could help that would be much appreciated, thank you

NHS pay is 50% plus SMP for those twenty weeks so it doesn't seem odd to me.

Yes, I'd interpret it the same. So you'd get 90% for ten weeks (SMP is the first six, the rest is a top up), then 20 weeks of 50% + SMP (I think NHS is capped at 90% for this bit?) and then £139 or whatever SMP is these days for the final nine weeks.

Yes it's 50% + smp for those weeks. 90% offset with smp means you get smp and they top it up to 90% of your salary (as it's for longer than the statutory 90% for smp requirement I think). It's better than some but a lot worse than others.

Thank you all, very helpful