SMP & financial STRESS!! Help needed.

[justhayley]

Hi all, I'm really stressed over maternity pay. I know by law I am entitled to SMP ..... However I work for a small private company who at present is making a financial loss every month and is currently thinking about closing down totally at the end of April (my due date is April 28th) great timing!
They are also being forced to make drastic pay cuts starting in March.
My employer can't afford to pay me SMP and pay someone else to do my job!
I know he's telling the truth as I do all the finances and accounts so know every penny that comes in & out.

If I can't get SMP from my employer or he closes the business can I get it from the govenment?
Or is there anything else I can do so I'm not totally fu%#*d financially?
Realistically I'm not going to be able to get a new job for a while - knowones going to hire me at almost 31 weeks pregnant!

I privately rent my home, not sure if I can get housing benefit for it at all or is it just council properties you get that for? And if u can get it, can you have it whilst on SMP?

Really worried about what's going to happen.
Iv never not worked and have no idea about benefit entitelments etc.

Any advice is much much appreciated - so stressed its unbelievable.

Thank you xxx

If you can't get SMP from your employer, you can get Maternity Allowance off the government. I don't think you get paid as much for as long, but at least it's something. I think you'd also be entitled to help with child tax credit and child benefit.

xx

I don't know if this helps but small companies can claim back the full SMP amount from JMRC.

I don't know if this helps but small companies can claim back the full SMP amount from HMRC.

SMP can all be claimed back from HMRC and if your employers NIC for the year is under £45,000 they can also get some compensation for the employers NI contributions they will make.
The only other costs they will have to make is if they make employers contributions to a pension scheme for you, they have to continue paying that at the rate they paid it before. But they are unlikely to be paying this out to a temporary person anyway so they would still have the majority of your salary budget available to pay someone else.

Hi OP, sounds like you have some very knowledgeable advice from people about SMP. I just wanted to give you this link:

here

as I've just sorted outed my Maternity Allowance forms and this tells you what happens if you can't get SMP from your employer.

Sounds like they should be able to sort it out for you but, if they can't, this website tells you what you need to do and what help is available.

FWIW, I've also found the maternity benefits support line surprisingly helpful - if you call the contact number on the directgov website, they should be able to put you in touch with your local benefit delivery people who should be able to advise you on any additional benefits you might be able to claim.

HTH

Is it just you, or do you have a partner? If so what is his annual income? Also, are you renting or do you own your property? How long ago did you start at your current workplace, have you been there since before you were pregnant?

Sorry for all the questions, hopefully I can give you some advice with them!