NHS Maternity Pay

[hopefulsunshine11]

Hi - I was wondering if someone could help me please as my payroll dept won't give me a rough calculation of mat pay until I am actually on mat leave.

I work full time band 4 with NHS Scotland so I am on £1775.00 Per Month net pay (I have opted out pension just now).

I am not sure whether to do equal payments over 39 weeks (8 weeks plus full pay 18 weeks half pay added up and split) with the SMP top up starting week 9-39, or do the standard 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay + SMP then 13 weeks SMP only. Has anyone recently been on mat leave with a similar salary that could please help? I really need some figures so I know what we can go on and budget. I have tried to calculate it myself but not sure I am doing it correctly.

I considered doing the standard option so on the months I had SMP pay only I could apply for Universal Credit but my partner also works with the NHS and does shift work so his pay varies each month and can be high some months due to weekend working and nights so I highly doubt we will be entitled to anything.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

I am a band 5, but I am in the pension so my monthly wage was pretty similar to yours. I have just finished mat leave and I decided to split the payments equally over 10 months. I got around £1250 on 4 week months. On 5 week months I got around £1500. Hope that helps a bit.

@Clairejay34 Thank you! Did you get reduced payments for the first 2 months like half your salary?

No they stayed the same the full time x

@Clairejay34 but you don't get SMP for the first 8 weeks so wouldn't your payments have been lower until the SMP had begun?

Hi, was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding NHS mat pay eligibility. I’m aware that you have to have 12 months continuous pay 11 weeks before baby due date and have worked out that I will miss this by 2 weeks. Does anyone have a similar experience with this? Is there any leniency with such a case or does it have to be exactly 11 weeks?
appreciate any advice!

@hopefulsunshine11 sorry I jsut noticed I hadn't replied to this. I'm not sure how it all worked out but I definitely never got less than £1200

I've also just come off maternity leave currently band 5 but again pay pension so similar to above...the first two months are full pay anyway so no reduced just your full pay for the calculation period so whatever you want in those calculation or 'qualifying' weeks as they say. The. It goes to half pay + statuary pay for 18 weeks then just statuary I couldn't do the last bit at statuary only because it was £626.64 per month and that's not doable but I added 3 weeks of annual leave on the end so that was full pay :) I also wanted to get back to finish the last bit of my preceptorship to go up to band 6 so kinda glad to be back...worked out DD has just turned 7 months when I went back (only just completed my first week back) hope that helps a bit.

I work full time in the NHS and I am currently 8 months into maternity leave. For the first month (June)I got £600. July 2022-January 2023 I got between £1590-£1690 per month because I spread “equally” across the 9 months. I will receive my last payment on February 2023 and it will be £54. I will be on universal credit for the until I return to work in May.

Is anybody a band 5 working in the NHS and had opted to spilt their maternity pay across 12 months and remain in the pension scheme? If so could you share how much you received i cant work it out the calculators wont spilt it across 12 and i just would love some information thankyou so much

Hi can anybody help please. I have recently found out that I am pregnant, currently trying to figure out the amount of maternity pay that I will be paid every month. I am top band 6, work Monday to Friday, could anybody please provide figures if I took 9 or 12 month maternity leave, so I can plan my finances, thank you.

I emailed pay roll and they sent me a breakdown of each option over 9 & 12 months.

I personally found it better to take the even payments and have 2 lower pays at the start of mat leave as we had 7.5 months to save to cover those