KIT days early on during maternity leave - worth it?

[Lagirl20]

Hi. If I do a KIT day early on in my maternity leave, when I’m still in the 90% pay period (first six weeks), is it pointless or will I actually get an extra day of pay in addition to my 90% pay?

thanks

Check your contract/work policies because I don’t think it’s standardised. Where I work they replace/top up the pay that you would have got that day, so more worthwhile to do it later on when on less/no pay.

Agree with @Spaghettieis one hundred percent. You don't get that time back with your newborn.

You won’t get paid more than you normally would have done so at best, it will be topped up to a full day.

Exactly this - the maximum you get will be 1 full days pay so it's not worth it if you're already on 90%.

I didn't find kit days worth it at all, I just went back to work a month or two earlier than I originally planned, after my first mat leave. (So at around 9.5mo instead of 12mo). By then I was getting cabin fever at home.

Is your work pressuring you to go in because they need you to do stuff? They really mustn't do that, you are totally entitled to say no to kit days.

Far better to take KIT days towards the end of the year when on nil pay, this maximises the benefit.

If you’re on 90% pay a KIT day is financially definitely not worth it.

From what I remember I also didn’t find kit days that lucrative later on either when I was on zero pay. While I was on 0 pay, my employer paid my usual pension contribution but when I got money for my kit day it basically all went towards pension. Not sure if that should have actually happened or not tbh.

In my job it wasn't worth it as they wouldn't pay while you were earning any occupational maternity pay, and I went back as soon as that ran out (NHS)

No do them later on when your pay drops.

Pointless.

Check your contract but I don't know ANYONE who gets 190% pay.
I work for an employer with close to THE best maternity pay and they don't do it.

First 9 months I did nothing and I did all my KIT days on the final unpaid portion (last 3 months of mat leave) anything else was way less cost efficient.

That doesn't sound right, why did they increase your pension %age for those days?

If might be worth following up on if it wasn't long ago

I took / did mine towards end of leave after my pay reduced but not nil. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any additional pay for completing them due to a change of policy at my work. I queried it at the time & was quoted the new policy.

@GinLover198 its unlawful not to pay full pay regardless of an employers individual policy.

That’s what I was told during my 2nd mat leave. I effectively worked a couple of days for nothing - I was told it was a change since my 1st mat leave & since I was in receipt of my statutory pay (not my full pay), I wouldn’t receive payment. I was told this after I’d completed KIT days, so I didn’t make the same mistake during my 3rd stint on leave & didn’t do any KIT days 3rd time round. Old policy was that you’d receive a full day’s pay after going down to statutory.

Check how your work will pay you for these, they wanted me to do them but when I checked about the pay I was being asked to do 5 KIT days and I wasn’t getting paid for them on top of my maternity they were just adding on a weeks hols for my total that year which I wasn’t interested in as I’ve only went back 2 months ago so I’ve already got 9 weeks hols for this year coming as our holidays refresh in January

I’d save them for when your pay drops.

You need to check your contract but generally it's best to take them when you are on the lowest pay. They are to help you adjust to returning to work. Taking training, meeting new colleagues catching up on emails etc so best taken when you are returning. Where I worked you had 10 and even if you came in for an hour for a meeting you were paid the whole day.

It's usually only financially worth it when you're in the unpaid portion of mat leave, as usually it just tops up to your full day pay

Talk to your HR and check but if you’re paid for them, you’re paid for them, it doesn’t matter when you take them.
I took mine about half way through and am so glad I did. Was nice to have a small break from
home life and made me appreciate the rest of my mat leave so much (am lucky to have had option to with childcare though I know).
One thing to consider is that if you get any benefits (pension etc.) through work these can’t be deducted from your SMP but can be taken from your KIT pay. Therefore you’re likely to take home a lot more if you are paid for all your KIT days in one go rather than say one or two per month.