Anyone an expert at SMP??????

[mosschops30]

Have spoken to a lovely man at ACAS who assures me that my employers are talking out of their xxxx.

He says that if for example I got pregnant in December and my baby was due in Sept 2009 then as long as I was working for that employer in December and was still working for them at a date in June then I am entitled to 6 weeks 90per cent of my weekly wage and then £117 a week for a further 26 weeks, regardless of my tax contributions.

Does anyone know if this is right, I know one of you will be a maternity pay expert

As long as you have been working continuously for that employer for 26weeks, by your notification week (need to double check when that is!!)

nope to the amount, though - you are entitled to 90% of your earnings or £117, whichever is lowest, for a further 33 weeks.

You are only entitled to this as long as you earn over the lower earnings threshold (£90 this year) regardless of whether you pay tax/NI (as you may be treated as such, even if you don't).

example:

If you earn £100 a week, you would be entitled to £90 per week, for 39 weeks.

Here you go mosschops.

What is your employer saying then?

qualifying week is wk25, btw, so you only technically have to be employed for a full week before you fall pregnant to qualify for basic SMP.

It may just be that you wouldn't get any enhanced Mat Pay from your employer (usually in the first 6 weeks or so) as they may have different qualifying times for that.

BigTeuch, here is what I got from the directgov site

Statutory maternity pay
You are probably entitled to the following Statutory Maternity Pay:

90 per cent of your average weekly earnings for the first 6 full weeks of your Ordinary Maternity leave.
Based on the information you provided, this will be £xxxx a week for 6 weeks.

£117.18 a week, or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for a further 33 weeks.
Based on the information you provided, this will be £117.18 a week for 33 weeks.
There are special rules if your baby is born early.

Is this right????? Seems too good to be true

My employer has said that I wont be entitled to anything from them and that payroll would have to pass it over to the benefits agency (I presume they mean the inland revenue as thats whop pays SMP and MA). They said I have to be employed for 12 months before I have any entitlement

So am I right that I will get this from the government if I am employed now, and will continue to be employed for the duration of my pregnancy? Regardless of tax paid (because I havent paid any)

yup!

btw, Flowery is the expert

I am just a frustrated pregnant woman who falls in an awkward place in the system and therefore has gotten familiar with all the boring bits!!!

Mosschops, it is possible there are some crossed wires, here

You will not be entitled to any occupational maternity pay from the Trust.

However, your entitlement to SMP is dependent on you satisfying the criteria, and as you are already employed, you will have done that as long as you continue to work for the Trust into the 25th week of pregnancy.

Therefore, they will pay you SMP through their payroll, then claim back from the government.

You should actually get it from your employer (who, in turn, gets to claim it back from the government IIRC!)...

Check the 'eligibility' parts of flowery's links closely, but there is not talk of 12 months as the qualification period for SMP!

They may have been referring to their own enhanced Maternity Package?

flowery I have done your link and thats what came up, so that does mean Im eligible for SMP through my employer (still worrying bout the tax thing though)?

Thanks everyone, am doing a little dance now at the thought of telling dh we can go for No. 3

And your tax history is irrelevant as you qualify just by working at the moment.

SMP comes from your employer, and providing you meet all the criteria in the link, which is sounds as though you do, you will get it from them.

In turn, they can claim back from the government as it happens, but as far as you are concerned, it comes from your employer.

If it's occupational maternity pay they are talking about, or 'enhanced', over and above SMP, they can basically put all sorts of conditions on it if they like.

And yes tax history is nothing to do with it.

Xposts

Don't worry about your tax history. It is irrelevant. The qualifying criteria are that you are employed in the week before you fall pregnant (i.e. employed for 26 weeks by the 15th week before EDD, or 25 weeks pregnant), and that you earn over £30 per week average, and that you are still employed by them in the 15th week before EDD i.e 25th week of pregnancy.

Ok so I do earn more than £30 and more than £90 a week and will continue to do so. But I still dont pay tax because I havent earnt enough yet this tax year so is that ok? (sorry I know Im banging on about it).

Maybe he just didnt want to mention that then in HR thinking he could put me off the pg trail

Thanks lou and flowery, I knew someone would be the SMP mastermind

It's fine, honestly. It's about your earnings not how much tax you have or haven't paid.

wooooooo-hoooooooo

I have a vision of you dragging your DH off to the bedroom!

lol maybe later, he's already got the hump because hes gonna get it more than once a month now, but for one reason only lol

Hi so was wondering if someone can give me some advice please. To qualify for smp you have to earn £120 or more a week to qualify. However, I get paid 4 weekly.

1st week I’m paid £100
2nd week I’m paid £243
3rs week £100
4th week £243.

On pay day I’m paid about £686.
Could I still qualify for smp? Just I know it says you have to earn £120 or more a week but two weeks of the 4 I only get £100 a week and the other two weeks I get £243 a week.
Thank you x

@jolly26

Hi so was wondering if someone can give me some advice please. To qualify for smp you have to earn £120 or more a week to qualify. However, I get paid 4 weekly.

1st week I’m paid £100
2nd week I’m paid £243
3rs week £100
4th week £243.

On pay day I’m paid about £686.
Could I still qualify for smp? Just I know it says you have to earn £120 or more a week but two weeks of the 4 I only get £100 a week and the other two weeks I get £243 a week.
Thank you x

This thread is from 2008 so you probably need to start a new one x