Universal credit whilst on maternity leave?

[MissLux]

Hi ladies 💐

I’m expecting my first baby in 3 months and before I found out i was pregnant i never really knew much about the maternity part after the birth of the baby.
Was mostly baffled about the figure you're supposed to live on, pay bills and raise a baby whilst on maternity leave when I spoke to HR.
Employers are basically low key trying to put nee mums back to work as not many people would be fortunate enough their husbands compensating for the loss of (almost a whole!) salary..

Anyway, rant about that aside, my actual question is am I entitled to claim UC after my baby is born until I get back to work ?

Im contracted on 37.5hrs a week (Work for the NHS emergency services - shift work)
Never claimed any type of benefits. My salary is ok usually but maternity pay will only cover like 2/3 of my rent.. How do you survive on that?!

Thank you in advance ❤️

Thank you op!
is maternity pay the same as maternity allowance?

i didn’t realise in NHS you can take a year of unpaid leave. I thought you had to pay all the maternity pay back if you don’t return after a year?

if this is the case I may have to do this, as I have another toddler who’s 2 at the moment and will struggle to pay childcare for both 😫

After my mat.leave finished I used my annual leave that I had accrued (and took 3 monThs paid leave) otherwise they would have made me pay the mat. pay back as usually you have to go back to work for at least 3 months in order to not pay it back.

that’s how I managed to avoid that :)

maternity pay is different that the maternity allowance. The maternity allowance is for people that haven’t worked for their employed longer than 28weeks for example. The MA is usually paid as a ‘benefit’ I think it’s about £650pm and is classed as income so UC deduct it £ for £ from your total entitlement.

Maternity pay is when you have been with your employer long enough and they pay you an occupational maternity pay and you also get the SMP at the same time (depending on how you have arranged the payments with your employer - I told HR I want the OMP spread for 52weeks / 12m rather than the confusing weeks they had set. That way I had the same OMP paid every month :)

Hope I’ve explained it well enough 😅

Thank you so much for your help, so sweet of you to explain :) so you can still get maternity pay and uc if low income?

did you go back to work at all then to take the 3 month paid leave? I also take my annual leave but it’s 7 weeks, which would mean I’ll have to go back to work for another 5 weeks to not pay? 😅 and take unpaid leave?

just struggling atm 🥲 after my first baby I returned back part time, but after the second not sure how I’m going to cope. Thinking of requesting even less hours, just so that I can have some income, and can revalidate. but not sure if my manager will let me so have to think of all ways now

I am in the same boat. I had my son in June received 7 months of full salary. Ive started to worry as this month will be my last full salary. Relationship with children’s father broke down (cheated whilst I was heavily pregnant during that time I was in and out of hospital due to pregnancy related issues) I am planning on returning to work PT until my baby is 2yrs old. Mentally I am not ready to deal with the stress and heavy workload which needs to be done in a unrealistic time. Basically I don’t want to return before 52 weeks will I be able to claim UC until I return to work in my case

I also work in the NHS.

LeeMay32
You are most probably eligible for universal credit; contact Citizens Advice tomorrow and they can confirm if you're eligible and how much you will get: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/
Your ex should also be paying child maintenance if he is not already doing so.

Thank you, I will give them a call tomorrow.

@Kardelen No problem at all ;) Happy to share, as I had to figure out everything on my own. Had millions of questions but no one really explained or helped me, no information was available that really answered them and to be honest every persons case is unique but I’d happily try and help wherever I can

I accrued a lot of annual leave during the lockdowns as I was high risk and was furloughed for my entire pregnancy (which turned out great and worked in my favour) and then I think you accrue A/L whilst on mat leave too (but I may remember wrong)

I literally used a whole year’s worth of A/L which was about 220hrs and due to my rota that made up to about 3 full months

I only have a bit of A/L now carried over 😅

You can always go onto flexible hours contract /annualised hours
I don’t think the manager could say no, as that would be deemed discriminatory. Whenever you do ask them do it via email so you have a record of it if anything goes wrong:)

You might have to do the 5 weeks unfortunately
however before you ask them for unpaid leave ask them for options - for example my ambulance service has it in the contract that if you take 1 year unpaid leave - they will keep your job and position
If you take longer than 1 year , let’s say 2 years - if the same positions as yours are filled and none available they will reinstate you at a similar position but they can’t promise the same band etc

Hi @Leemay32

You will definitely be able to apply (and depending on your circumstances UC can also help with rent - if you are renting)
UC will only start pressuring you to work when the child turns 3. Until then it’s ok (they won’t make you go to appointments etc)

The only bad thing is if you are entitled to more than £1660 a month UC (and live in London) that will be capped at that due to the fact you don’t work.

For example my entitlement is £2100 a month but the cap goes into effect from this month for me so I will only get £1.6k … the nursery fee alone is 1k so it’s a huge struggle but yeah…

Child maintenance won’t be much probably unless your ex rakes in big money each month - it’s laughable how ridiculous CM requirements are 🤦🏻‍♀️

You can also get advice from the GP regarding the mental health situation as they can refer you for the appropriate treatment and pathway and if deemed so you can have sick leave due to MH

Just make sure you are OK so bubba is ok too ☺️

Oh wow, I had no idea you accrue AL on ML. How does it work with SMP, given that company pays AL average for last 12 weeks? Can I take accrued annual leave right after my 90% pay and then use rest after I'm stopped being paid this £155 something per week?

@xogossipgirlxo do you mean you want to take annual leave as a pay rather than actual days off? Or am I misunderstanding 🤔

I spoke with HR prior to starting my maternity leave and told them to spread my maternity pay (OMP - occupational maternity pay) evenly throughout 12months
It came to about £900pm for me

SMP kicks in automatically (in whatever week it was, can’t remember anymore 😅) and it was about £650-670pm

So with both pays my payslip came to about £1200-1300pm after tax, pension etc

SMP stopped when bubba was about 9m

the accrued annual leave has to be taken at another time (otHer than during maternity leave) unfortunately

hope this helps x

Thanks for your response. I am in talking therapy at the moment as I have suffered many years of emotional abuse from my ex plus the cheating and no remorse during pregnancy.

"@xogossipgirlxo do you mean you want to take annual leave as a pay rather than actual days off? Or am I misunderstanding 🤔"

Yes, I'd rather have the money.

Thank you for response, I'll check with them (once I tell them I'm pregnant 😬) x

@MissLux Thank you so much for taking your time to properly share. I too work for NHS and asked for my OMP to be spread out evenly throughout. I was shocked when I got my first wage in December (£900 from £1660) a week of which was AL prior to going on mat leave the rest OMP, SMP not reflected. Jan got paid £800 after tax and pension and payslip stated OMP and £44 of that was SMP 🤔.contacted payroll several times to ask for breakdown of earnings and still waiting (apparently there have a backlog and they will post the information 🤔🤨) ...Still waiting on them.

My payslip usually becomes available a day or 2 prior to payday, which makes it hard for me to budget the month ahead without knowing what's coming in etc

You mentioned that: 'SMP kicks in automatically (in whatever week it was, can’t remember anymore 😅) and it was about £650-670pm
So with both pays my payslip came to about £1200-1300pm after tax, pension etc'

Does that mean I can expect my income to change again in the coming months/weeks? ie: get SMP? I'm on UC and they usually award on a month by month basis based on previous months earnings meaning one needs to wait an entire month to be awarded according to any changes in earnings. (I hope I'm making sense 🙃

Hi @Joy99

The first couple of payslips are a bit odd and confusing but it becomes better afterwards.

payroll should have given you a personal breakdown based on YOUR salary (if you have asked them) so you could see what your monthly figure would be before tax

When SMP kicks in, yes, your payslip will be better than the previous month - that’s from month 2-3 and lasts until month 9

afterwards it reverts back to OMP only until month 12 so your income will go down again.

I hope the OMP+SMP doesn’t wipe your UC award (I don’t know how much youre entitled to and what’s your maternity pay so can’t tell you for sure)

hope I’ve answered your questions ☺️

@Joy99 forgot to mention the SMP £44 is correct

mine was £150 (that’s for 1 week) because it depends when you maternity leave started

since we are paid monthly from work (at least I am) SMP kicked in during the 8th week which ia the last week prior the monthly pay hence why I only got £150 of SMP

I hope I’ve explained it clearly 😅

@MissLux Thanks, that's reassuring. Yeah I did ask for personal earnings break down but nothing from payroll to date 🤷🏻‍♀️. Im due pay in a couple of days time, will wait and see, I'm hoping this will be the pay that includes SMP.

You also mentioned that you took 3 months AL in one go? Didn't know that was an option as we are usually only allowed 3weeks max unless we make special request (ie: family abroad, honeymoon etc). I would have accured plenty AL as I intend on taking the max mat leave to spend more time with lil one and due to childcare costs. Thinking about it, would I need to request to sell NHS my Dec-April AL or will that automatically be considered as exceptional circumstances and have it carried over into next financial year?
Sorry for the many questions, I've gone through the matnity related policy but some things are not clear as we all go on mat leave at different times and various durations.

Yes you can claim UC whilst also claiming SMP. I did.

@Joy99 no problem at all

Everyone in the ambulance service is on a rota so mine just happened to be one that allowed me to book so much time off . ( It was a 9 week rota which repeats all the time and towards weeks 8-9 I only had 2 shifts for 2 weeks in the rota, so if I took them off I ended up having 2 whole weeks off - I hope it makes sense)

I was lucky that all my pregnancy I was furloughed (during the very first outbreak of covid and lockdowns as I was high risk) so I accumulated AL then too.

I messaged one of my managers to ask if I can have the 270hrs accumulated to be carried over. In total I had about 330. I explained I want to spend more time with the baby hence why I wanted to use the AL after mat.

He told me that since 67hrs were already carried once from last year once, they can’t be carried over again.
however he was happy to carry over the 270hrs over as long as it’s used as I have told him it would be.

He also tagged one of The admins in our emails and told her to put a diary date so we can arrange the A/L.
I booked my A/L as normal and it was all approved.
So its all completely up to your manager’s discretion.

(I think the max hours they allow carrying over is about 75 if no special circumstances apply btw)

I hope this all makes sense

PS email your manager as soon as you can so they can tell you what your options are for your case :) as special circumstances are not automatically done when it comes to AL and how much is carried over I mean

@MissLux Thanks a ton, you've been really helpful, deeply appreciated 🙏

Hi there! I know this reply was in December but im hoping you see this, I'm also in the same boat, my baby girl is due in 4 weeks (I don't work for NHS but just looking for threads about UC), My pay will drop to SMP the week I'm due to have her, should I wait until my wages have dropped from the 90% to the SMP to apply for UC? Or do it now.. I can't get my head round any of it! Thank you in advance and I hope you and your baby are well xx

Hey

you can by all means apply now and don’t wait until SMP if you would like. If you are sure you will be approved that is as I don’t know your circumstances and your possible entitlement and what your wages are so I wouldn’t be able to tell you more than that at this point.

The biggest advice I could give you is to apply on the 1st of whichever month you choose to apply on because this way your assessment period would be 1st till 30th or 31st

@MissLux thank you for your advice! I might wait til 1st June then, so did it take a month for the application to be processed and money to go in?

I am quite sure I'll be accepted as I will be living off the SMP come 20th May, which is £172 a week and I rent on my own! But for now I wouldn't be accepted based on getting 90% of my wage so would they decline me now and I'd have to apply again once wages drop? Xx

It took a couple of weeks for me I think but since my assessment period is 1-31, the statement comes out on the 1-3 and get paid on 7th :) so if you apply on the 1st you may get those dates too :)

highly likely they will approve you since you are single and renting alone

so I can roughly tell you what you might be entitled to

standard allowance
If you’re single and under 25 £292.11
If you’re single and 25 or over £368.74

1 child - 269.68

your rent (for example £1000)

these are the basic things you would be entitled to in your position

so add them All together and that would be your monthly entitlement figure

they disregard the first £292 of the earned income (salary, SMP etc)

after that they deduct the SMP (as it’s classed as earned income) and for every £1 they take 55p

—example -
entitlement £1500

smp 650 -292
= 358

358x0.55 = 196.9 they will take out of your £1500 entitlement

so you are left with £1303 help from UC

i hope this all makes sense 😃

It is making a lot more sense now thank you for going out of your way to explain! It really is appreciated.

I have read from someone else's reply on a different thread that the assessment period is 30 days so won't matter if I do it on the 1st? And it said best thing to do is apply the day after I get paid my last proper weekly wage before it goes down to SMP, then over the next 4 weeks I will be getting SMP and that will be taken into account for the universal credit, as my employer will be entering this to HMRC, so they can see my wages have dropped right down, then I will be paid it the next month, does this sound right to you?
Thank you so much x