To get a job for the mat pay?

[jeloc]

I am not going to start trying for a baby for at least another year but feel I should start preparing.

I am currently a freelancer so won't get any mat pay. I have a nice lump of savings of £30k but I don't want to spend these, I want to purchase a larger home (own a 1 bed flat).

I have freelanced for three years and am growing my client base. I love freelancing but only make £25-£30k, but this is growing by £5k every year.

My friend works for a corporate and just got a year off fully paid at £60k a year.

Is it unethical to get a job now, just so I can get the year off fully paid? I am aware that in some contracts you have to pay it back if you don't return, but my friend isn't returning and her contract doesn't have that.

I don't think it will be easy getting a job that pays £60k but I have great experience and may find a less paid job that will give me a year off fully paid. I am worried about losing my clients as I wouldn't want to continue with a job after mat leave.

What do other freelancers do? We couldn't afford to not have two incomes. My parter runs a business and takes home between £18k and £40k depending on the year. Last year it was £26k .

My partner has £10k savings.

I don't think the OP suggested she had no intention of returning to the company? It's up to her what benefits she is looking for in a new role and if maternity is important to her that's also fine. As everyone has pointed out there will be caveats to accessing enhanced maternity in most companies as well as potential claw back if you don't return - but why would you think you have to accept struggling on SMP if you could have an option to access some enhanced pay (for however many months) and in return you will work for this company in the role they have hired you to do!

@Alwaystired2023 this statement implies she won't continue in her new role after maternity leave as she would return to her freelance job

I am worried about losing my clients as I wouldn't want to continue with a job after mat leave

Might come as a surprise to you but finding a new employee is time consuming and costly. When we employ someone it's because the company needs their skills and output, now and for the foreseeable future. It's not just about the money, you see. Someone with the OP's agenda would be a bit of a nightmare.

Would just echo other comments that finding a job with those benefits may be tricky and also that information isn't always readily available until at least the offer stage so you may find yourself going through lots of applications and interviews only to find that the benefits package is not as good as you hoped.
It shouldn't do but asking upfront for maternity policies is likely to raise red flags for the company.

I have worked for two companies offering enhanced maternity- one was 12 months full pay, the other 6 months then 3 months SMP. You only had to be there one week prior to conception essentially so basically 41 weeks before your due date. Neither had a pay back if you didn’t return to work. It’s not unethical if you are working for them.

I think its compeltely sensible.

I've been there 5 years, I'm an excellent employee and I plan to stay for approx a year when i go back then move to a competitor.
Ive "made" the business over £10m profit in my working time (which is 4x higher pa than my frankly shit mat leave cover) and is far less than my salary so i don't think its cynical and i dont think i "owe" my billion dollar employer anything.

Enhanced maternity pay for a year is fairly uncommon these days, most pay statutory after a few weeks or require it to be repaid if you leave within a couple of years. Done require multiple years of employment to qualify too.

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea, more that you are being a bit unrealistic

@GreatGateauxsby you are in a completely different scenario so I can't see what possible relevance your situation is. You didn't take a job merely to immediately get the maternity pay and with no intention to go back afterwards. The intention the op described is simply to feather her nest at the expense of an employer she has little interest in working for and no intention to stay. You on the other hand have been a long serving valuable member of the team.

OP says

I am worried about losing my clients as I wouldn't want to continue with a job after mat leave.

She had no intention of returning. She doesn't really want the job. Is wanting to get one and then get pregnant asap and then never go back. Totally unethical. Taking advantage of a system designed to help women maintain their position on their company is unethical

Some private companies can offer very lucrative packages and if you have the skills to negotiate that within a year of working there, go for it. Most of us don't/wouldn't and even generous maternity pay packages wouldn't see even half a year fully paid until at least a full years service before getting pregnant or two years service as a condition.

Also there are likely conditions for failing to return to work on these generous policies after maternity. Not worth it.

Def something to consider! It wld def be worth it finically and I don't see a problem with it.

Although be careful as sometimes you need to have been there a certain period of time and u must return for a certain period of time to not have to pay it back. At my employer you have to come back for 1 year and u have to be employed for 12wks to be considered.

Not many employers offer a year full pay, I haven't heard anyone I know get anything better than 6weeks then statutory. I got 6 months full pay then stat. It wasn't something I was aware of when I took the job just got lucky as was planning on starting a family. Everyone I know is shocked when I said I was getting full pay for 6 months. Really does make a huge difference as stat msg pay is so low.

How will you find out what the mat leave policy is without asking (as obvs rings alarm bells for them). Unless u know from someone that works there already.

But that's an entirely different set of circumstances, isn't it?

My company pays 18 weeks full pay but only after 3 years service

Talk about comparing apples and oranges!
It is not remotely like someone getting a job that has free gym membership!

No, it’s not unethical. If you didn’t return for X weeks, you’d possibly have to repay the enhanced Mat Pay. As long as you’re planning to fulfil your contractual obligations, I don’t see the issue here at all.

But how do you know whether someone 'has an agenda' or not?
Someone could apply in good faith, get pregnant, be sick the whole time, and then give up work. That's about 2 years of keeping their job open, but not their fault.

PP's point was most companies don't offer full pay from the get go, or claw it back, for this reason. I don't think taking companies for everything you can is unethical given that many do the same to their employees. But OP would be very, very lucky to find a job that offers what she wants, especially as we're in a recession!

Furthermore, OP hasn't even started to TTC. She's planning to do so in a year. It could take her a while to get pregnant etc so she may actually end up having been there for a decent amount of time.

BTW OP I don't quite get your question, it's titled like an AIBU but this is money matters.
Very few places have such generous maternity leave policies. Forget a year, even 6 months is uncommon. You're jumping the gun thinking about ethics when you haven't even gotten a job yet. Unless your friend is going to get you hired (unlikely since she's left).
So being a freelancer makes no difference, most people have to save up for maternity leave. The statutory minimum is a pittance.

The other issue you'll have as I mentioned, you don't know how long it'll take you to get pregnant and carry a healthy baby to term. Or even if you'll manage to easily, at all. That's quite an uncertain amount of time for you to leave the client base that you worked so hard to build up.

How are you going to make enough to support yourself if you quit immediately after a year of mat leave? Don't think that you'll be doing any work that year (and it's probably not allowed anyway). You're going to start somewhat from scratch with a family to feed. You say you need 2 incomes and also want to spend your savings on a house.

Fair enough for you to work for a bit, then eventually return to freelance but I highly doubt you can dip in and out so smoothly. Unless your work is so memorable that people are chomping at the bit to work with you immediately. Maybe you really are that good. I don't know.

No issues at all. I did exactly the same. When I knew family planning would be a year or two away, I moved from a company which paid 90% for 6 weeks then statutory to one that paid 6 months full, 3 months statutory and 3 months zero.

You are simply a number in a firm. So long as you do your job when you're there, there's no issue with using the benefits available.

No it's not unethical. It's smart to pick a company based on their benefits package.

For some reason some people think that it's perfectly fine to select an employer based on annual leave entitlement, pension, health insurance perks, shared parental leave full pay entitlement (which largely benefits men), but not maternity leave benefits.

So many responses to thread like this (from women I might add) are a demonstration of why maternity and pregnancy are so specifically protected in law.

Because none of the other perks are equivalent. Taking a job for the sole purpose of not doing the job but for taking MP with no intention to stay after MP period is unethical. Taking a job for perks that are taken whilst working at the company is normal.

The equivalent would be taking a job purely to not work the job but to get signed off sick for a year on pay with no intention of ever working for the company again.