Maternity Pay

[Boomerwang]

Can anyone tell me what the maternity pay is like in the UK please?

I've just had a letter from the Swedish social telling me I'm going to start receiving payments equal to 180kr a day for 240 days. This is just under £18 a day.

Is this good? How does it work in the UK? Is it a set figure or different for people in different circumstances?

I've never paid into the system in Sweden, but I have in the UK and I wanted to know if I was getting a basic rate here and missing out on a higher figure in the UK, having paid taxes and NI for all of my adult life so far.

Depends on your employer.

The legal minimum Statutory Maternity Pay is 6 weeks at 90% of your salary and then a further 33 weeks at about £125 a week (but you still pay tax and NI on this). Then you can take a further 3 months unpaid.

If you aren't actually working in the UK then of course you will not be able to claim this! Your past employment history is not relevant. To get SMP you have to have been working for your employer for at least 26 weeks by the time you are 25 weeks pregnant. If you have changed employers during that time then there is Maternity Allowance, which is similar.

Some employers, especially in the public sector, pay a bit extra on top of the legal minimum. For example, teachers get 12 weeks half pay so long as they return back to work afterwards. I believe the NHS has a similar deal.

Since you have never been paying into the system in Sweden you are getting a bloody good deal!

What katandkit said is pretty much spot on.

It's £128 a week for seven and a half months plus six weeks at 90% of your wage at the start of mat leave.

But it does depend on your employer. Also you need to have been employed for 26 consecutive weeks before the 15th week of pg to qualify for mat pay.

The only other factor to consider is whether you would be legible for tax credits here. But tbh it sounds like you've got a good deal there!

Good luck with your pg.

Well the £18 a day will be for 5 days a week, not 7.

I must have the wording wrong, I knew about receiving maternity pay if you've been working but I thought what I was getting was a basic benefit that you would get on TOP of SMP. Is my pay just INSTEAD OF smp?

It's so bloody awkward. I found out that if I'd registered as unemployed whilst still in Britain I could have had some kind of benefit for a while in Sweden. Thing is I was employed full time in the UK until the end of June then I got on my flight pretty much right away. Figured I could sort it out whilst I was here. Sweden didn't want to know about me until I'd registered to live here and it took months ><

I've still never received a single penny from either country.

Thanks loads for your help btw guys :D

I don't know if you pay is instead of SMP, since I don't know how things work in sweden. i presume if you had an employer there, you might get money on top.

If you were employed full time in the UK until the end of June you may be entitled to claim maternity allowance from the UK. You can download the application form from the direct.gov website. You have to have been working (in the UK obviously) for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before your due date. So, depending on when your baby is due, you might just about manage it. You'd get £128 a week for 39 weeks if you qualify, however I don't know if you'd be able to get the benefits from both countries. Also I don't know if you have to be resident in the UK to claim MA.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018869
Here's a link to the MA page - the link called "a guide to maternity benefits" is useful from that page.