stat mat pay confusion; need layman terms explanation please

[Peacenquiet2]

Right, this is my understanding of how stat mat pay works, please tell me if im right/wrong and if im wrong please tell me how it works as that would really be appreciated.

At the moments im working as a bank nurse so my hours are'nt guarenteed. But if i work consistently for the 8 weeks (earning over £109.00 a week), prior to the 15th week before my baby is due: i will qualify for stat mat pay right?

I have only been picking up one 12 hour shift per week so i can be home with my two dc, and have done this for about a year give or take holidays etc. I earn about 130 per shift, and will carry this in until at least 15 weeks before baby is due (im 20 weeks now), so only another 5 weeks till then.

So anyone know from what ive said if i should get mat pay?
Sorry for the rambly post.

It needs to be what you actually get paid between weeks 17-25 of your pregnancy, not what you earn in that time. For example, my old job paid me 4 weeks after I'd worked the hours so I would have needed to have worked extra weeks 13-21, so that my pay for weeks 17-25 was higher.

You will get £136 per week, or 90% of your weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Hope that's clear :)

thanks for response rockchick, that does help. its not as straight forward as usual as im a bank worker and ive been worried i might not qualify for it but going by what you have said i should be ok.

You only qualify for stat pay if you have worked continuously for your employer for 26 weeks up to 15 weeks before your expected due date - not 8 weeks. Not sure if that affects you or not?

Loulou the rules are slightly different for agency and bank staff than for contracted-in employees.

If you don't qualify for smp you will almost certainly qualify for maternity allowance. I was doing agency work and got MA