What maternity package are you getting?

[MrsLister]

I've just heard on the work grapevine that our maternity package at work has been 'changed' recently and isn't as 'generous' as it used to be (I think you got minimum 2 months full pay if you'd been there a year, increased exponentially the longer you'd been there, then onto SMP)

I'm a bit pissed off because I havent been informed of these changes to the policy so have been assuming I would get the above (which is what i was told I'd get when I was pregnant last year - had a MMC)

Anyway - just wondering what kind of package you were getting? And are there any of you that work for companies who only pay SMP?

I work full time for a media agency and have been here 5 years

Thanks!

Where I live every woman gets the same package regardless of where she works - 6 months of full pay. Any extra time after that is unpaid.

oh and you are entitled to 2 and a half years off unpaid ofcourse

im a primary school teacher and have recently discovered maternity pay is not as good as i thought! a few yrs ago i worked at a smaller school where women got a really good deal but sadly where i teach now is nowhere near as genererous! its a state school so we get standard council employee rates i think...but i am annoyed to learn that my friend who works for the council in their offices is getting way more than i will! she had her first child in december and is taking a full year off. (covered entirely by a combination of full pay or half pay!) i am due in septemeber and would love to do the same but my husband and i are simply not sure if we will be able to afford it with the way maternity pay drops quite quickly!

3 months full pay, then 6 months SMP. During months 4-12 we get contractual benefits (including pension funding) which works out at about quarter pay. Will have to stop paying into pension during mat leave to afford my share of the mortgage payments, which means working longer into retirement.

Will be worth it to spend precious time with my baby. Wouldn't miss that for the world! Planning to go back after 10 months to a job I love.

I work for a semi-public org and get 16 weeks full pay and 23 at SMP, which they will average out so your pay is pretty much the same over the 9 months.

Think you need to be there a year at your due date to qualify. Entitled to 52 weeks leave in total, plus accrued annual leave and public hols.

Fairly generous considering most of their other working conditions are pants!

I got six months full pay, 3 at SMP and I took 1 month leave, and 1 month upaid?

Think thats quite good, I worked for Civil Service at the time, wouldn't get that now though!

Six months full pay plus 3 months SMP. I also had my car allowance paid for the full year. Work for a pharmaceutical company. However you do have to return for 6 mths otherwise you have to pay it back.

I get maternity allowance: that's it. It works out at about 20% of my usual salary. We've calculated that we can afford for me to take 8 weeks off and then will have to return full time. I work for a well known university. Really not looking forward to putting little one into childcare at 8 weeks; hoping they will let me carry annual leave over and then I could afford another month off. Suspect they'll say no though!

I got 6 weeks full pay and then all the rest was half pay. Was great, I took 1 year off so had two months of no pay. But it meant DP didnt have to cover the mortgage.

Six weeks 90% and then SMP here. DHs dept closed just before Xmas so I've been back at work a fortnight, my son is 30 days old today DH is now SAHD but he makes a better househusband than I would be a housewife!

To the self employed posters - if you pay class 2 ni contributions you can claim full MA (approx £125/week) regardless of earnings, details are on directgov website. Probably too late to start now if you're already pregnant, but for next time!

I get 6 months full pay, 3 months SMP and 3 months no pay. Work pays my child care vouchers for the last 6 months and I get to keep my lease car. I am a very lucky civil servant. Have to work fo the equivalent of 1 month on return from mat leave or pay back my full pay months.

I got nothing. Made the mistake of getting pregnant just as my husband was setting up a business and I worked for that business.

Just the basic SMP. Lawyers are so tight.

My company changed their rules about 3 years before I got pregnant. I only got SMP and that's a large multinational company.

I got 6mths full pay and full bens off. 3 mths at a very reduced rate and then 3mths at 0 (assuming I went to 12mths). The implication being that they give you 6mths to keep you off and then you go back full time, which for me is 8am - 18:00 minimum and in reality is 7:30 or normally much later.

That said I worked for a bank. I knew the deal. Im not sorry for myself. Just tired really. I fought for a fwa (and gained it). I went back in Jan for 1.2 days before being made redundant.

Moral: take whatever you can get. Use as much of it as possible and if you manage to alter the rules when you return, expect a rebuttal.

Its a game no matter where you work. Play it and play it well. Sorry if I sound cynical, Im just very over fighting all the time. And generally feeling like very little gets returned. Im sure this isn't what Pankhurst fought for. Its just what the marketing men at Vogue/Cosmopolitan magazine and others in the 70's/80's decided equality/feminism should be and women in work should get. I bought in to that.

I won't be letting DD make similar errors. She bright, she gonna rule the world in her own sweet, gentle way however she chooses.

I got 6 weeks company maternity pay which was 90% of my average weekly earnings and then went on to statutory. Had to spend a week of my 6 weeks in hospital being induced. Think a lot of companys are starting to give the government minimum if they weren't already.

I received SMP only (6wks 90% then standard SMP) like many people here- it was crippling...made worse by constant comparisons to my Scandinavian family. Their deal is so v v different to ours.

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone might be able to tell me the tescobank maternity policy/ leave?

I'd be really grateful if anyone has any info.

Many many thanks.

I will get

6 weeks full pay
Then SMP for 33 weeks
So that's 9 months, the remaining 3 aren't paid.
However i then can use all the holiday I've accrued (which will be another month) at the end of the 9 months so I can have 10 months off.

I think I'll go back part time rather than full time as boyfriends salary will allow this plus we have been very careful with money and have saved a lot.

I will get 6 weeks full pay then SMP so not a lot really. It's pretty shit

I work for an international bank in the City of London and will be getting only statutory entitlements ie 6 weeks at 90% salary then SMP. Really cant understand why most public sector employees have enhanced maternity pay, isnt the government saying that SMP is sufficient for women to survive through maternity? My friends who live in Asia and Australia couldnt believe that the UK pay that low, yet we have racked up much more public debt than most other countries.

The economists kept talking about the demographic bomb ie there arent enough children born to grow into adults to work and pay for our burgeoning social welfare costs, and that's the most fundamental problem of the current prolonged recession, yet there has not been anything done at all.

I work for a law firm. 6 weeks 90%, then next 4 and a half months 50%. SMP after that. If you return to work for a full year you get a bonus of work the other 50% for that 4 and a half months - but if you reduce hours or dont return you have to pay the 50% you got back (in full or pro rata to your reduction).

This post is nearly a year old! The OP has possibly gone back to work by now!