How flexible are they with due date on MATB1 form?

[LovePugs]

I have a bit of a dilemma and I'm really hoping someone can advise me. I became pregnant some time in September (my partner works away a lot and this was the only month we were together).

I think it was probably near the beginning of the month, but to get full maternity benefits in my job I need to have become pregnant after 22nd September. I am really scared, as it makes a huge difference to me (neither I nor my partner earn a lot). How definite are they in calculating due date? I'm going to see the midwife for the first time this week and am going to ask but could really do with some advice.

To compound the problem I hate my current job (my boss is a bully) and have just on Friday been offered a new one. I'd love to take it but if it meant losing maternity benefits I wouldn't.

Not sure what to do. Over the moon to be pregnant but don't know what to do.

I think your due date is based in your dating scan. Mine said week commencing xxx rather than a single date.

Your Due Date will be confirmed at your first scan. It may or may not be amended at your 20 week scan. You hand ober your MatB1 at 25 weeks.

Your MatB1 form will have on your Due Date - not your conception date. You would then count back 40 weeks to give the date you are classed as falling pg.

They usually date you from the first day of your last period. Then from your 12 week scan. You don't receive your MATB1 until your 25week appointment.

How good are your mat benefits? Are they worth staying for?

Due date is based on 12week scan. Midwife can't be flexible on that unfortunately.

When do you think you conceived? What's the wording on your contract? Are your employers really going to be counting back if it's potentially the difference of days?

Based on what you've said though, I'd really consider the other job offer. At least you know you've got something to go back to. I'm assuming you wouldn't be returning to a bullying boss who quibbled over your enhanced maternity pay.

No flexibility unfortunately. it will be based on the scan date.

They can be flexible... My scan date was 7 days different from my calculated date by last period. I'd been peeing on ovulation sticks so
I was pretty sure of my dates. Midwife said they'd take my last period date over the scan date as long as I was sure.

I'm glad they did because if they'd taken my scan date I'd have been induced at 42 weeks rather than having my lovely home birth at 41+1 weeks.

Teenage- then you were very lucky. I have lived in two areas that will not budge on scan date for any reason except ivf. Ds was apparently immaculate conception.

Actually, my midwife was flexible. My scan date was more than a week out from my own dates (and for various reasons I was pretty certain that my dates were right). Scan dates aren't infallible, there is a margin of error (and my scan was done by a trainee who found it difficult to get all the measurements).

Anyway, my mat leave entitlement, for a bunch of odd and quirky reasons to do with my job, ended up being two weeks longer if my original scan date was correct. I explained this to the midwife and she just said she'd put whatever date I liked on the form as it didn't matter to her which one it was! Pretty much all my midwife team were pretty relaxed about the dates during the pregnancy - well, until I was overdue and they wants to induce me, then they picked the earlier scan date - I still think my date was right and I was less overdue than they thought, if they'd left it a bit longer I might not have had to have the horrendous induction

*wanted not wants!

Honestly, most areas are massively inflexible. Those who have had flexibility are the exception- just look at past threads. I was utterly certain on my dates and, despite speaking to the supervisor and everything, no movement (though mw's were supportive when I said I would delay induction and continue with hb post dates as I did not believe I was)

Sorry, have had a couple of glasses of wine, not making sense! My mat leave ended up being a longer entitlement if my original (later) date was correct, not the earlier scan date.

Penguins but OP is talking about the MATB1, not the date they use for medical reasons like induction- they aren't flexible on that as they could get sued if they let someone go overdue over a certain point and something went wrong. But the MATB1 is only an estimated date for your employer, and it doesn't legally have to be a scan date (for example, it is possible to refuse scans and some people do, or for whatever reason they don't have the first scan until after 13 weeks when the scan date is no longer as reliable - in which case they use the LMP EDD). The MATB1 is only ever an indication anyway, as of course your actual maternity leave entitlement normally gets calculated by the actual date of birth in the end.

In my case I took a gamble that I would be late and I'd get my extra two weeks anyway as a matter of course (which I did). I only needed work to know in advance that I would be getting it, for odd reasons to do with how my job works.

I take your point. But in both areas I have been in they have taken the view that there is only one date and it must be consistent in all documentation. And AFAIK the statutory maternity entitlements unfortunately go from that date, not actual DOB.

When I got my matb1 (from GP) , he asked me what my due date was, wrote it on matb1 and didn't record it elsewhere, so I don't think anyone would have been able to cross reference with scans etc. This is my round about way of saying I think I could have got any date (within reason) put on there!

Have you tried looking into Maternity Allowance? I changed employer whilst pregnant and have applied to claim MA instead as I will not have worked for the new employer long enough to claim maternity pay. But as long as you have been working for something like 60(?) weeks before your due date you can try claim maternity allowance from the gov. I've not actually received it yet...so don't take my word for it....worth checking?

But the maternity entitlements only go from EDD if you want to start your leave earlier than the birth? AFAIK if you were to work up to the birth date you must start leave the day after and are prevented from returning within two weeks (I think). Most people don't work up to the birth date, but some do. In my case the exact nature of my job meant that even though I technically "worked" right up until the date of the birth, I took some other holiday leave entitlements which meant I was at home for the preceding few weeks (ended up giving birth during the Christmas holidays ).

I wrote my own name and due date, because all my midwife did was sign it...!

I think you stand a chance of wangling this one OP. Just tell your midwife what you told us. Maybe your midwife will be as laid back as mine!

Not to be the voice of nasty advice here, but if they calculate from your last period. Can't you just tell them either a later one or that you just dont know ;)

I really dont know the date of my last period so they went by what I thought the actual conception date might have been and at the first scan they said the baby would be 2 days ahead of taht and at the second scan 2 days behind that. So I'd say using conception was bang on for me so far.

Before I fill in my MatB form I will prob ask them to confirm the dates again.

But don't forget that your pregnancy is +2 weeks. meaning if you fell pg on 22nd September you'd already be 2 weeks pg so you'd need to take that into account too.

No planet- smp entitlement is worked out based on service at 15 weeks before the week of the due date. Giving birth early or late doesn't affect that. Most enhanced company schemes use the same qualifying criteria- though of course the OP could check of rhe wording were vague.

Everyone gets leave regardless of service. Though you are correct that the mandatory 2/4 weeks run from actual dob.

~No planet- smp entitlement is worked out based on service at 15 weeks before the week of the due date. Giving birth early or late doesn't affect that. Most enhanced company schemes use the same qualifying criteria- though of course the OP could check of rhe wording were vague.~

~Everyone gets leave regardless of service. Though you are correct that the mandatory 2/4 weeks run from actual dob.~

^This. Plus technically as the mat b1 is used to calculate entitlement to SMP/MA and usually employer based enhanced maternity pay too, it would be fraudulent to put a date known to be incorrect. Officially its the due date calculated by the scan and not LMP (unless you refuse scan) or ovulation. Those of you whose midwives did put different were lucky because they were acting against professional conduct.

Also OP, if you think you conceived in early sept then, you actually count as 2weeks pregnant at point of conception, so it may work out that you got pregnant in august, even though you didn't conceive until early sept.

Sorry to come back to this, but I've just reread the OP. How can it be that you need to have become pregnant later? Normally entitlement is to do with length of service where longer = better.