maternity pay question?

[Marneychristmas]

I am 27 weeks pg, since having dd1 i have been working part time earning £70-£90 a week. Im thinking of leaving work in a few weeks time. I am confused at how much maternity pay i am entitled to and what type of maternity pay i am entitled to.
If it is based on 90% of my avarage weekly earnings how many weeks do they work the avarage out over?
Over the past couple of weeks i have earnt less due to illness, will this afect my maternity pay?

I was on contract of 16hours a week so i received approx £100 pound a week for 6months- but to get this i needed to be with employer for 1 year.They worked out 90% of income on a years salary.Hope this helps

sounds like you'll be best with maternity allowance which is £100 (plus a bit) per week for 26 weeks

Go to www.tiger.gov.uk and if you follow the links then they will give you information. It was invaluable when I was going on Mat leave.

Hope it helps. Good Luck.

The Tiger site is really useful as it works out all your dates.

Basically if you have worked for your employer for a week longer than your pregnancy and have earned an average of £82 per week from weeks 17 to 25 of your pregnancy, they should tell you directly that you have qualified for SMP at 90 % of salary for 6 months (this is what I will get as I've earned £83 per week every week for that qualifying period of 8 weeks mid-pregnancy).

If you haven't earned that much but still have earned some and worked for the employer you will have to apply for Maternity Allowance which will be 90% of your salary again for six months but instead of it coming like normal from your employer as wages it comes from the benefits agency directly and you have to apply to the Job Centre yourself for it.

Speak to your employer. When they get your MAT B1 from the widwife (after 20 weeks) they have to work out themselves whether you qualify for SMP and tell you by 25 weeks. By 25 weeks you also have to tell them when you plan to start your maternity leave giving 4 weeks notice.

Hope that helps.