Maternity pay

[rosegarden45]

I'm so confused and would appreciate help from anyone who has received maternity pay please.
I'm a first timer and don't understand the way it works. When I try to contact my HR department I don't get the response I'm after as whoever replies to my emails appears to be quoting directly from a policy which I don't understand and we can't telephone HR so I'm getting really frustrated.
I'm due mid April and wanted to work until due date and start mat leave on due date. HR/finance worked out sums when I sent in my matb1 form and sent me a letter saying I must take annual leave prior to mat leave and therefore have to finish work at the end of March. My main queries are: do I have to take annual leave prior to mat leave? Others have said about taking it after mat leave - if I do this does it automatically get added to end so I go back to work later? The breakdown weekly payments for mat pay seem really low. I'm concerned that by the end of this year I will not be able to afford to pay mortgage etc because I'll be getting no mat pay. Someone mentioned to me that there is another form of mat pay that can be claimed but I have no idea how or who to contact regarding this? Or do I need to go back to work after 20 weeks off when the payment from work reduces? Any advice would be much appreciated

I took some annual leave before mat leave kicked in because I was so tired. When the holiday year end came around, they paid me for the annual leave for that year I hadn't used as they wouldn't let me carry it. I had originally intended to use the days at the end of mat leave to get some money as my SMP would stop around 9 months. Do you get any enhanced mat pay or just statutory? You should get 6 weeks of mat leave at 90% of salary and then statutory for 33 weeks.

Could you share the policies you have been quoted? Might be helpful for us and we can try to advise.

Does your leave year run Apr - Mar? How much do you have left in this year? You couldn't carry over to April the leave you haven't used for this year, I imagine.

Also could you share the part of your contract that mentions mat pay, or the policy section if relevant.

When the holiday year end came around, they paid me for the annual leave for that year I hadn't used as they wouldn't let me carry it.

They can’t do that.

Depends what the policy says Titty and what leave year the leave fell in...

My main queries are: do I have to take annual leave prior to mat leave?

Your employer can ask you to do this. (Unless their policy says otherwise.)

Others have said about taking it after mat leave - if I do this does it automatically get added to end so I go back to work later?

No, it wouldn’t be automatic. You can ask your employer if you can take it after your mat leave but they don’t have to say yes.

The breakdown weekly payments for mat pay seem really low. I'm concerned that by the end of this year I will not be able to afford to pay mortgage etc because I'll be getting no mat pay.

Did you not look into this before getting pregnant?

Someone mentioned to me that there is another form of mat pay that can be claimed but I have no idea how or who to contact regarding this?

Maternity allowance is less money than SMP and isn’t available to people who are eligible for SMP.

Or do I need to go back to work after 20 weeks off when the payment from work reduces?

That’s your personal decision.

Agree that we can’t really advise without seeing the policy terms.

Hard to say without knowing more, but if your leave year runs April-March then I'd expect you to have to use all this years allowance before you go off, but not next years.

I think the other mat pay you're referring to is maternity allowance, which as someone has already said is less that mat pay and you're not entitled to it anyway. A little confused about why you're surprised by how much the pay is, does it not match up with what the policy says?

I was told I couldn’t carry my annual leave over, as the new holiday year started whilst I was on ML. I took my remaining 3 weeks AL then started my ML on my due date, finishing work at 36+5. I’m back at work in two weeks and have another 5 weeks AL to use in the next 6 months.
Depending on your job though you may struggle to work right up until your due date, I probably could’ve done with finishing a week earlier. I have an office based role.

My leave year goes from April-March and we are normally allowed to carry over 37.5 hours from one year to the next. I started maternity leave last week and was allowed to carry over up to 80 hours. I’m tagging it all into the end of my maternity leave along with what I accrue whilst I’m off. My maternity leave ends at the end of November, but will all the leave I’m actually off till February. So over Christmas I’ll still be off work but getting paid for it. Thought it would be better to do it that way than use my leave up before starting maternity leave. However, it seems like my employer is more flexible than the OP’s.

The difference may be that you started your mat leave on the 17/18 leave year rather than the 18/19 like the OP (potentially) Clevs

OP, where I work you have to take all holiday acrued from th e start of the leave year to the start of your mat leave before you go, so you'd need to take some leave in the weeks before your due date if you haven't already used up enough of your leave. when you come back you must take all the leave accrued between your due date and the date of return, before you step back into work. This may mean you take a few weeks of leave before you start work again.

I'm struggling with this now as I tend to use leave to cover school holiday childcare in the summer and my employer's policy will leave me with little leave for next summer (our leave year is Sept - Aug).

Statutory Maternity Pay is £145.18 per week or 90% of your wages if they were lower. So not very much. Have you planned for mortgage payments and other expenses or are you only looking into it now?

Titty well they did! Why can't they do that? What's the difference? I got paid my normal salary for the days.

Because they can’t legally pay for leave accrued during mat leave unless you leave.

Statutory Maternity Pay is £145.18 per week or 90% of your wages if they were lower. So not very much.

Not quite.

Oh well, the lump sum was handy at the time!

Thanks for all the speedy responses.
I've sent another message to HR and have finally been promised a phone call to discuss. Not sure when but I'm glad to finally have a voice to speak to! Hopefully.

I just find all the written information very confusing (dyslexic brain doesn't help!)
I did read policies etc prior to pregnancy but must have been confused as I was under the impression I would get 90% of salary for most of the time off however that is most definately not what the statement I've been sent shows.

I do have savings set to one side so will survive but I just wonder how people cope if savings are not available? I don't want to use all of my money up just to have extra maternity leave. I wonder how others cope at the point where pay completely stops?

Regarding annual leave - mine is April-March. I'm due mid April so can't take all of my annual leave before due date.
They have told me I'm on annual leave from end of March, then mat leave from due date then due back to work mid April 2019. My boss admits she knows nothing about mat leave pay etc but told me I should see if I can have annual leave at the end of mat leave to cover the months where I'm not paid. But without being able to speak to anyone in HR i haven't been able to see how this works.

I just want to make sure it's all sorted before I start my leave and that I'm not missing out on anything I'm entitled to. If I lose annual leave solely based on my due date I'll be very cross. Also, I was told by a friend that there is some kind of child benefit that everyone is entitled to. Again, I'm not sure if I'm entitled to this as I work full time. I don't want to scrounge benefits if they are not required but then this may be the helpful extra that people get when not paid at end of maternity leave?

Sorry to sound so stupid but I'm new to all of this!

If you earn under £50 ish k a year you are entitled to approx £80 a month in child benefit.

You apply online. Nothing to do with work

Here www.gov.uk/child-benefit

I don't think that they can make you start your maternity leave early. So if the baby isn't budging on EDD you have every right to be at work and getting your normal pay. The baby might not even come for a couple of weeks after EDD. I thought I'd mention that in case you want to carry on to then maximise the time you get maternity leave once the baby has arrived. By the same token, if the baby turns up 2 weeks early, your maternity leave kicks in so work will need to think of sth to do about your unused holiday.

In terms of coping, there's a range of things people do: go back to work sooner, use savings, ensure their mortgage and other outgoings are low enough to manage on one income, the working partner does overtime or another job to earn more etc be very frugal and watch ever penny etc.

I did read policies etc prior to pregnancy but must have been confused as I was under the impression I would get 90% of salary for most of the time off however that is most definately not what the statement I've been sent shows.

SMP, if you’re eligible, is 90% of reckonable earnings (calculated for 8 weeks/2 months prior to the 25th week of pregnancy) for 6 weeks and then 33 weeks at £140ish.

You shouldn't lose any annual leave OP, it's discrimination if you do. As for child benefit, if you're entitled then do claim it and don't feel guilty. I ummed and ahhed over it because we could manage without the money, but we decided to claim and put it into a savings account for her to have when she's older (assuming circumstances don't change and we end up needing it before then of course). I was given the form to apply in hospital from the Bounty lady.

You can work it out like this:
For the first 6 weeks you will get 90 per cent.
For the remains you will get around 140 smp.
You then add on the 20 per week child benefit.

It's not that hard to work out. That will be the minimum, your employer may offer an enhancement depending in your contract. Read that.

If you're going on mat leave in the leave year 18/19 then leave from the year 17/18 needs to be used in that leave year. It's not discrimination. I imagine that's why they are telling you to take the last few weeks of the leave year 17/18 off, otherwise you'd lose it.

I think (sure someone will correct me if wrong) you have to start your mat leave latest on the EDD and not later, even if you suspect/hope the baby comes later.