NHS pay increased backdate

[SoNew94]

Hello! Is anyone here on maternity leave and works for the NHS? Ive been on maternity leave since November 23. We received a pay award this month that was supposed to be back dated to April and received in this months pay. I checked my payslip this morning and noticed my annual salary has increased but I’ve not received any backdated pay! I’ve checked with another colleague on maternity leave and she didn’t get anything either. Surely we’re entitled to the money we would’ve received had we got the pay increase in April? I’ve contacted payroll but they’re vvvv slow and I’m sure have thousands of people complaining!
Anyone else in this situation or have any advice?

Sometimes the back pay is on a different pay run but they should have told you this, did they not write to everyone?

Also do you work for an actual NHS Trust, or an NHS contractor…

Hi. Are you in Scotland? If so. The annual increase started this month but backdate is in Novembers wage. So you’ll get the backdate from Apr-sept next month.

I’m NHS Scotland and our backdated pay is due in next months wage so I’ll get it at the end of November

I'm NHS Wales and ours is coming in Nov pay.

I work for an NHS trust!

Nope I’m in England, we were told it would be with October pay. My colleagues not on maternity leave have received it! But those on maternity leave haven’t. Seems a bit unjust

Then I assume it’s just in a different pay run.

Some contractors chose not to give backpay but I think there is a lot of work for them to do in one month so they often do split up the payments

Did you choose to have your pay averaged over the whole length of your maternity leave. If so then the uplift may not apply until after your eligibility for maternity pay eg. If you began maternity at the start of Nov 23 then your 26 weeks may end before 1/4/24 and your pay won't change.

Hi, yes I had it averaged out so am still receiving OMP from my workplace. My mat leave started 23/11/23 and ends 23/11/24.

What's your mat leave package if not averaged?

Any pay earned before 1/4/24 surely won't be backdated, even if it's paid after 1/4/24. Averaging just pays you pay earned during your entitled period spread out in more installments.

So if when taking non averaged mat pay it would have stopped before the date pay is back dated to then you wouldn't be entitled to any pay.

Effectively what I'm saying is are you (under standard non-averaged arrangements) entitled to any earn (not be paid money previously earned) pay from the date pay is being back dated to until today? If not, then there's nothing due.

@SoNew94 Ok so you only be due a very small backdated element I think as only a small part will relate to pay 'earned' after 1/4/24. I'm only guessing here but I think your mat pay is 'earned' over the 26 weeks from the date it started but then spread out so you don't have months without pay.

I would check with payroll as if your mat pay is 'earned' up to 23/4/24 you should get something, however if it is deemed to be 'earned' before you start your maternity pay then nothing will be due.

@SoNew94 Having thought about this, the uplift that you got in this months salary is your back dated pay, as you currently "earn" £0, you're currently being paid money "earned" during the first 26 weeks of Mat Leave when you were entitled to Occupational Mat Pay. So if your pay amount has gone up, they've obviously recalculated to take your back pay into account.

The pay you receive now was "earned" in the 24 weeks from the day your Mat Leave started, So from 23/11/23 to 7/5/24 Any money earned before 1/4/24 is ineligible for back pay. So only 1/4/24-7/5/24 counts for back pay purposes, and that was time at half pay. So you have roughly 5.5% of 6 weeks half pay as your entire back pay. Presumably this has been calculated and added to your remaining OccMP pot, and then the new amount has been split across your remaining Mat leave weeks, hence you've had a small uplift in pay, even though you're in the part of your leave where you aren't "earning" any Occ MP at all, you're simply being paid a portion of pay previously earned.

It's a bit complicated, but hopefully that makes sense. Sorry it's not better news for you.

Sorry my maths might not be exact, I just realised I put 24 instead of 26 weeks and not sure if that was a typo or if I miscalculated - but the principle remains. The only uplift you would have seen in this months pay is back dated pay, as you are not entitled to any OccMP for this period, the OccMP you are getting is money that you actually earned in the first 26 weeks of mat leave, and only a very small proportion of that was earned after the back pay cut off of 1/4/24.

Hi! Thanks so much for your message, yes that makes sense. Although I didn’t have any uplift at all this month, only what was in my original forecast. I think you’re right about the 6 weeks, and hopefully it will have been added onto the coming months pay. Thank you, yes it’s very disappointing especially as my colleagues had calculated we’d be getting a fair chunk!

@SoNew94

Sorry to be the bearer of yet more bad news, but is your Occ Mat Pay "week's pay" calculated based on a "Qualifying Week" as Stat Mat Pay is? If so, that "Qualifying Week" will have been before Mat Leave started and therefore before the backpay cut off. In which case no uplift or back pay at all until you're back earning. I'm not an HR person though, so someone qualified might be able to clarify. I wouldn't hold out any hope for a large lump sum though.

Yes you’re correct however as per the government website, any pay rises must be taken into account while on maternity leave and pay should be recalculated to factor it in. The backpay advice is unclear though. I think you’re probably right though, silly of me to think I’d get extra!

Yes, I have the same issue. Payroll are looking into it but doesn't sound very hopeful from these posts.

I started my maternity leave on the 12/03/24 and have been informed by my trust I’m not eligible for any backdated pay.

According to the BMA website "Where a pay award or annual increment is implemented during paid maternity leave, the maternity pay due from the date of the pay award or annual increment should be increased accordingly. If such a pay award was agreed retrospectively, the maternity pay should be re-calculated on the same basis."

https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/maternity-paternity-and-adoption/finance/maternity-leave-pay-entitlements-under-the-nhs-scheme

So I think that as long as your entitlement to Occ Maternity Pay (i.e.26 weeks from starting mat leave) doesn't end before 1/4/24 then you should be entitled to an uplift in your maternity pay which might be paid as a lump sum, or your Mat Pay might be recalculated accordingly.

In the case of the OP it'll be a very small amount as only a few weeks of entitlement were after 1/4/24 and therefore eligible, but @Flynch90 should get a bigger amount as the majority of her leave was after 1/4/24.

Thank you I did see this so was really unsure why they said I didn’t qualify. I have contacted my union so hopefully they will give me some answers.

@Flynch90 I'm not sure that's how it works. It looks like the maternity pay is based on the following.

"Your NHS maternity pay is calculated on the basis of your average weekly earnings for the 8 weeks ending with the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth. Gross earnings are taken into consideration, including banding."

I started my mat leave 2.4.24, would I be entitled to anything? Thanks.

Hi,
I started my mat leave the same week as you but a few days earlier, currently on no pay, as none mentioned to me that I was able to split the pay over the full year!

I've had similar issue myself as I also thought I'd be getting a fair chunk. However SMP is not included in back pay entitlement. Payroll at my trust this morning have informed me that they did not have time to deal with all the back pay so people on mat leave will be getting there back pay next month. I was also told not to expect much as it is only based on the half pay I was getting in April and for part of May before dropping to SMP.
Not sure how it would work for you as you have split income over the full year but just thought I'd pop on to explain and say you may be getting your back pay next month.

Hi. I contacted my payroll as I did not get any back pay as well and I was told:

"You have been on mat leave since April and therefore not been paid any basic pay or HCA

The backpay is based purely on this, so if you have not been working at the trust from April, you do not qualify for the backpayment."