Did you get paid full pension contributions while on maternity leave?

[NotableI]

I ask because I didn’t, mine were reduced significantly.

However I’ve just read in The Times today (paywalled) that this should have been paid in full. Worth challenging? I work for a big Fortune 500 company so I assume this will have affected loads of women here.

I’ve copied a snippet from the Times article below but would be interested to know others’ experiences:

“Analysis by Times Money has found that some firms are reducing the amount they pay into mothers' pensions in line with their lower wages during maternity leave, despite the law saying that contributions should stay at their normal salary level.

"The issue disproportionately affects women in the private sector, while those on salary sacrifice could face even bigger losses. Pension contributions can not be made via salary sacrifice if you are on statutory maternity pay because government guidance says that it must be paid in full, so cannot be sacrificed. In this instance, employers should match the pre-maternity contributions from the employee as well."

Hi, I had this on maternity leave too. I went back to my work who contacted Sage and they said it’s a setup issue so your work has to tell Sage that they want to pay full contributions. Sage simply suggests we should only get bare minimum 🙄 luckily my workplace were as upset about it as I was and rectified the error once they’d got to the bottom of it.

Glad your work were amenable to fixing it! I assume it didn’t happen maliciously but obviously would rather have those missing contributions than not. I’ll go to my payroll department and see what they say.

Absolutely, different type of employer to yours though. Go armed with as much evidence as you can. I took an article I’d seen - different to the one above. It did take some time to resolve, especially with the Sage issue.

I did for the time that I was on full pay and then it was prorated across the time that I was on part pay and the small bit at the end where I wasn’t getting any pay I didn’t.

If pension is salary sacrifice it is a contract of employment change…the employer has to make full contributions whilst on maternity. Think it’s different if it’s relief at source

Oh sorry, yes two separate issues relating to pensions on maternity leave!

I got my full amount for the 9 months maternity pay period but none for the last 3 months (although I then was able to catch up when I was back). Including employer making my contribution on my behalf when on SMP.
I think this is in line with the law on it.

Interesting - I should check this.

Yes, I work in financial services.

They also paid my salary sacrifice nursery fees when I was in SMP.