Maternity Pay - How many of you were lucky enough to get extra from employer?

[RedKennedy]

Hiya
Im 23 weeks and just had the chat with my bosses about maternity leave and benefits and been told that they cant afford to supplement my £108 p/w. Im gutted. I wasnt expecting to be on full pay or anything but for some reason thought as they arent getting anyone in to cover me, they should be able to give me something. On the other hand I work for a small company of 7 people and as such we dont have policies on this kind of thing. Im just so gutted as it now means that I will only be able to afford to be off for the 3 months or so that Im being paid (6 weeks at 90% and then my holiday entitlement). Dreading the thought of going back to work so early. GGgrrrr. If only my DP could earn a bit more!

Pros and cons of working for a small company - I work for an enormous faceless institution and they give us 6 months at full pay without a murmur... am aware we're very lucky though.

Not a drop. Second maternity leave and they don't offer a penny more than what they have to give.

Huge company - they gave me a bit extra, but they begrudged every penny.
Bless 'em!

another one who used to work for a mahoosive employer

i had 14 weeks topped up to full pay then stutory for 12 weeks

also accumulated holidays

then took redundancy

I worked for a mid size employer. I had to invoke the grievance procedure over maternity pay as they tried to give me less (changed policy after I'd told them I was pg)
They paid up in the end

I was a teacher at the time, so got 18 weeks paid leave from my teaching scheme. Think it was 2 weeks full pay, 4 weeks at 90% and rest at half pay.

Big employer too - 13 weeks at full pay then 13 weeks at half pay. Only benefit of a huuuuuge company

That sucks RK. I'm a v lucjy in that I work for a big place too, I get 6m full pay and from April I think 3 more months at smp. The normal pay sucks though!

Does anyone know if the smp has actually been agreed fropm april at 9months?

Big public company here also - got 8 weeks at full pay and then 18 weeks at halfpay plus statutory £108 pw so have hardly ben out of pocket - but most smaller companies only give statutory (my sister has been pg 3 times, worked for a different company each time and only ever got the statutory pay).

I recommend civil service- 9 months at full pay, then 3 months with nowt- with option of up to 5 yr career break if you cant face the office after that. Also homeworking/ part time on return. thanks god

I'm cs too glitterkitty - but the Nat Assembly for Wales. Current mat policy still states 6 months - am hoping that in April the change will ahppen across the board!

Not a red cent more than statutory - but I can keep my company mobile (so they can contact me in emergencies)

you lucky lady GK jesus, maybe I need to retrain. (did you used to post somewhere else btw?)

Yep - 9 months stat for all babies with a due date after April 1st (I think

Local Authority - got 90% of full pay for the first 6 weeks, then 50% for the next 18 weeks. Then the option to take up to 26 weeks Additional Leave (unpaid).

Hi RedKennedy. I work for a huge company and they give us 6 weeks full pay and then the rest of the 6 months is statutory. When I was last on maternity leave we got in to a lot of debt and really struggled even after going back to full pay. This time I'll only be taking 4 months plus a few weeks holiday. It is annoying for such a large company to be so mean considering they are always going on about how much money they make.

Bibithree- I have lots of contact with your lot- was up there a while ago- swanky building! HR dragging their ars*s on this one- but yes hopefully we should all get it!

Redkennedy- I joined cs for the benefits- was in higher paying private sector job before. But if you are thinking of having babe/retiring then cs is definatly the place to be. Yeah I post here and there! Have we met?

The benefits are the only reason I stay. Could get paid a lot more but we get flexible working, good holiday allowance and good maternity pay.

CS seems like the place to be. Kicking myself now but it never occured to me to ever think about maternity benefits! can you tell I got up le duff by accident..
Im very jealous of you all. And feeling rather shellshocked about how we are going to cope but where theres a will theres a way.

GK dont think weve met but have a feeling we prob had mutual friends in the distant past..i used to be londonsgurning about 7 years ago. Now Im a bloody grown up on mumsnet! If someone had told me yada yada..

(I stay because of the mat benefits too, despite Useless Boss from Hell - also staggeringly good value nursery tax breaks and a lot of holiday)

I got full pay for three months, half pay for another three months and calls from the office every day (including one to the hospital while I was in labour). Private sector but I was on the board there so that may have been why I got a good deal.

ooh I forget to mention the childcare vouchers scheme - fab!

9 months at full pay!!

Mat pay is when being self employed (as I am) really falls down!

I will get 18 weeks full pay then 21 weeks SMP. Can then take 13 weeks unpaid (that should make 52??)

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