NHS maternity pay gurus

[LittleTalks]

I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall trying to get some answers about maternity pay. HR have been utterly unhelpful and are refusing to produce a forecast as it is "too soon" - I'm 20 weeks! And I'm going round in circles looking at documents on the internet. So I'm turning to the superior collective knowledge of MN for answers to these questions:

1. 4 months into my maternity leave I would have been awarded an annual increment. Apparently my mat pay will be adjusted to reflect this - but how? Do I get an equivalent % increase as it falls during the half pay period. I.e. if I was due to get a 10% raise, will I get a 5% increase in my mat pay? Or will I get half of the absolute increase?
2. I presume "pay awards" do not refer to changes in banding. Incredibly annoyingly the 2 months on which my mat pay is calculated includes no out of hours supplement. Though the last 4 months of my pregnancy and when I return from maternity leave I'll be earning another 50% in banding. Can I just kiss goodbye to this in my mat pay packet?

This is all probably a bit niche but would appreciate any insight!

I am in no way a guru, but I will tell you what a know (or understand I should say!)

Your maternity pay is calculated between 16-24 weeks of pregnancy. This is why HR are unable to forecast your wage as yet if your only 20 weeks. As I understand, the pay is calculated on those 2 wages which you receive in this time period. I don't think (but I'm not sure) AL entitlement is reflected pay wise, but you will get more AL at the end of your maternity leave if it falls into the next period of entitlement.

I found communicating via email was easier. I discussed it with the payroll personal for my unit rather than HR. I received my forecast (after some pestering!) around 30 weeks. Sorry if you already know this but I spread my pay over 9 months- the first two months pay is considerably lower than the remaining 7 (first 8 weeks is occupational pay, which is then substituted by SMP) but still more than SMP.

Sorry if I've confused you more, it's a minefield! X

Well mine won't give me a forecast until 1st week of December, and I go on mat leave on 1st December! Tried challenging it with them but they were having none of it. Totally bizarre!

Thanks both. Payroll were so unhelpful! They wouldn't even tell me which 2 months pay my mat pay would be calculated on. It's not like my due date is going to change! Anyway, I think I've worked that bit out now.

I think I get your drift with regards to the first 2 months Pippa. I guess in the third month the extra 600 odd a month from the SMP kicks in.

Part of the reason I"m so concerned about all this is I don't want them to screw me over because I don't know what I'm entitled to. And I worry that with a newborn my brain will be too frazzled to nitpick the figures. Mind you, they might miscalculate in my favour... one can only hope!

little have you heard of the nhs employers handbook? I hadn't heard of it before but just Google it and it has a huge section on maternity which might help you...

There will be a maternity policy on the trust intranet site for you to read. It should all be on there. Do you get paid unsociable hours etc? If you get paid same every month it should be OK to work out but much more difficult if your taking into account enhancements x

I think it's called maternity and adoption policy x

I'm guessing you are a doctor. The BMA have published a very helpful booklet explaining it all.

If you Google "bma maternity guidance", the second choice (for me anyway) is the PDF. (Doesn't seem to have a direct link that I can share as it downloaded it straight to my computer.)

Also, this is quite good at working out the numbers:

www.gov.uk/maternity-paternity-calculator

Finally there are lots of helpful people on Doctors.net who'll have suffered this as well with Medical Staffing. I think each and every time I've been on maternity leave, it has been the first time ever that a female doctor has ever got pregnant...

Obviously it depends on your trust and contact but the main rule is:
SMP for eligible employees can be paid for up to 39 weeks, usually as follows:

the first 6 weeks: 90% of their average weekly earnings (AWE) before tax
the remaining 33 weeks: £139.58 or 90% of their AWE (whichever is lower)

The AWE I guess is what's earnt during weeks 16-24 but as pp said, the calculator on the gov website will help.

Thanks all.

Dino - I hadn't thought to look at doctors.net, thank you. And yes it is EXACTLY like I am the first doctor to ever become pregnant. Not just payroll either; it's the people that do the rota, who organise rotations, my supervisors... Quite unbelievable when you consider how much of the workforce is female!