I just checked the maternity leave policy at work....that cant be right ! Pleasantly surprised !

[inbetweener]

I'm kind of shocked. I only discovered I was pg at the weekend with baby number 3. I have 2 DDs aged 6 and 8 so havent been on maternity leave for a while. I only had 4 months and 6 months with both of them.
The policy has since changed in the way that they pay you your maternity pay( I work for the NHS ) and I have just calculated I can have 52 weeks of at £1250 a month !!!! You are allowed to spread your payments about over the whole entitlement if you want.

That seems like such a lot ??

Im just surprised. I never knew I could do it like that ! I never dreamed I would be able to take the full 12 months off but I reckon I could live on that.

Louisesh - I think thats what I will do too. 8 weeks full pay followed by 18 weeks half pay with SMP. Without sending very dense, how much is SMP as my half pay will not be a lot and my salary is what we live on.

I also saw that they pay SMP till 39 weeks but I will be back by then. I thought they carried on paying. Jeez shows how long its been since I did this !!

This maternity leave pay is sooo complicated. Or is it just me

I work for the NHS too. I've just started my mat leave. I'm expecting full pay for 8 weeks, then SMP (£125 per week I think) PLUS half pay for 18 weeks. then SMP continues for a further 13 weeks I think.

What we are doing is planning to live on half pay + SMP for the whole time. Putting the other half from the first 8 weeks (aka 2 months) aside so that I can take 8 months off and use the money we've put aside to add to the SMP for months 7 and 8. Does that make sense?

It is a bit of a minefield though. Oh and then I will go back to work but have 35 days of annual leave to take (back on full pay of course). So all in all will get to take the best part of 10 months off.

I work within the NHS and I only get the legal minimum. So I am really in 2 minds whether to go back in May if they cant be bothered to incentivise me.

Think your maths is wrong, sorry! I work for NHS and they're not that generous.

Yes, BUTTONMOON i am aware SMP is not a "bonus" and to be paid when not working.However, all i was saying [AGAIN] it pays not to work, both myself and my DH have paid in to our ssystem for over 20years and never claimed a penny to only get the [less than] bare minimum again.

It seems which ever party are in government its ALWAYs the working/middle classes who get penalised.With the recent changes to child tax credit {which i was under the impression was to help working people pay chilcare fees/facilitate said return to work] and child benefit.Once again pay in for years and get nothing back!!!!!

But you didn't say that on this thread!

I am in the same boat, believe me, always the loser. This new child benefit rule could well hit us hard with me as SAHM and DH earning just over the threshold.

Inbetweener, I read your first post and thought "Wow, what a high earner, lucky cow"!!!! (I have a calculator brain, very handy) Shame your first calculation wasn't right, that's be ace.

Reading this thread has made me realise I'm really lucky. I'm a teacher and get 13 weeks on full pay, 26 weeks on SMP and the option of a further 13 weeks on no pay to take me up to a year.

A friend of mine works for a uni and gets 6 MONTHS full pay, then 6 months SMP, now that's good maternity pay!!!

Inbetweener SMP is approx £125 per week, i believe.

Yes its all very complicated!!!!!Have been on the phone to my HR/PAYROLL dept numerous times!!!!

SARAHSCOT wish i worked as an uni tutor.....Your friend's mat pay is indeed very nice!!!!!

I will sound soooo bitter, its not personal, but after the government cuts to benefit this week i will now get nothing when our baby is born in march - I've worked so hard in private sector,pay higher rate tax and will get 12 weeks at 90% then stat, so cant afford to do anything but work full time after (dont shout i own more than my husband, we're not loaded, just im the main breadwinner - but there is cash for nhs people to get alot more - it just seems a bit harsh and not 'level for all'
like i say its NOT personal & i dont expect anyone else to pay for my bsby, but i am a bit narked at how hypocritical this gov is!
rant over ! x

The thing that hasn't been mentioned is that if you take NHS maternity pay as opposed to just SMP you must return to work for at least 12 weeks after your leave or you must repay the money. The NHS has a HUGE number of women employed who are of childbearing age. It's unsurprising therefore that the maternity beenfit is 1/2 way decent - they need us to work there and return to work there.

Ethelina- take it you haven't been working in NHS for long then?

Oggybags - I think the "generous" maty benefits in NHS reflects the fact that the majority of its staff are women, if they only gave stat minimum then staffing would be even worse than now. Private sector can only afford to pay you your high salary because they only give minimum stat benefits.

Agenda for Change handbook here maternity section is pretty straightforward

My DH works in the private sector. His salary is not 'high' nor does he get incremental increases each year. He's been on the same salary for 7.5 years. He works 60+ hours a week, often away 4 nights with no extra, no overtime.

And he won't be going on strike. We're lucky he has a job at all in his industry.

IME fairness is usually invoked by those who are treated best.

It is a myth that working in the private sector = high pay.

My smp works out at very very little, would love that package , I genuinely don't know how a single parent or the higher earning parent copes on smp, if you have any benefits at all (job benefits such as private healt insurance) you get taxed on it on your ml/smp. Consquently I recieve £300 per month not the £125 pw that is smp. I am thinking of kicking the private health as have been taxed astronimcally on it over the last 5 yrs and not used it - BUT you know the minute I do something will need to be done

And its a myth that working in the private sector = minimal maternity pay. I work in the NHS and will be taking 9 months off. The maternity leave is good, but not sufficient to enable me to afford the whole year off. That is always assuming that there will be a job for me to go back to, of course. I have a friend who works for an engineering firm who is taking the full year as her scheme works out a little more generous than mine. If my DH could have the babies we'd be quids in. His private sector manufacturing company offer maternity leave of full pay for a year!!

Yorkshire - I would love to work at your dh's firm. Sadly I work in a very male dominated firm which isn't a problem except they don't have a clue about maternity/childcare voucher schemes or anything else, in fact only about 5 of us in the last 5 years have had babies, although for 3 of us it is second time round whilst working there........

i work in the public sector and have the same deal as the nhs - am now a few weeks into the half pay plus smp bit. i'm planning to take the whole year off and use savings to subsidise the second six months. i've actually managed to put a lot aside over recent months - no travel, lunches etc, plus no central london drinking after work etc. we have got pretty much all our baby stuff either bought by grandparents, second hand, on freecycle or passed on from friends so we've spent very little.

the expensive bit will be next year when ds goes to nursery/childminder!

With your Tax Credits question, they probably won't adjust it now, but when you fill in your end of year return, they don't count £100 a week of your maternity pay, so you will probably get extra back then.

Sorry to hijack, but Yorkshire how the devil are you?

Also my ML is 13 weeks full pay then down to SMP for 26 weeks. It's a lot better than some places, but as DH doesn't earn that much we'll take a financial hit for a bit. Oh well.

Thanks so much for all your input.
I will take the 8 weeks full pay followed by the 18 weeks half pay + SMP option I think.
I am aware that I will have to go back or pay the money back, but unfortunately I have to go back anyway.

Its interesting to see how much the maternity leave differs from private to public.

Thanks ladies and I do still feel slightly and at my initial excitement at the start of the week !!!!

Hi Hermya, I'm getting along just fine - four weeks to go - can't wait for pregnancy to be over! I'll have a wander over to the FTF grads thread and see how you all are. :)

Hiya,

You should be able to get someone in corporate services (or HR) to work it out for you.

Mine was really complicated, full pay for y and SMP for z over 6, 9 or 12 months, i asked my HR person to work out spread payments over all three before i decided (y+z/6,9or12) what to do.

I chose 9 months in the end, 6 months seemed too short and 12 months was just too much of a financial stretch for us.

HR were happy to do it.