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!

SMP is all some of us get.

never got more than SMP

I was - I got much more than SMP....then promptly left 2 weeks after I went back

They never asked me to pay it back and there was nothing in my contract to say I had to. I had every intention of returning to work but when it came to it, I just couldn't do it.

Hi,

I'm quite sure I'll just get the basics from my company but I'm worried about how they will calculate the 90% bit. My contract states that I work 30 hours per week plus any overtime but I usually work anything up to 40 hours per week (extra hours in the evenings). So, will they work it out based on 90% of my average 'earnings' or 90% of my contracted 30 hours per week?

purple - every employer is different. I got 100% pay for first 13 weeks then 50% pay for next 13 weeks. AFAIK my employer calculated my average earnings in the week which was 15 weeks before my EWC. I'd check with your HR department to make sure.

I get 14 weeks full pay, then 12 weeks SMP. I'd imagine that's pretty standard (though haven't had time to read whole thread).

Sorry haven't read the whole thread but in answer to your first post. I worked for a smallish private leisure company. They were very good and agreed to top up my smp by £40 a week. It really made a difference to me. I think they regreted it after, as 3 other ladies went on to have children whilst employed there and of course they expected the top up too.

I get 18 weeks full pay and then the rest on statutory which isn't bad.

I work for a huge corporation too, one of the few benefits being the maternity arrangements, I get 18 weeks full pay, a further 21 weeks on Statutory, and I'm entitled to a further 13 weeks unpaid leave if I want, making a total of 52 weeks. Still undecided what to do.... My sister is halfway through her second maternity leave and she's doing a year, but is already a bit bored. I think she's crazy, after 15 years of working a year off sounds fantastic to me, but of course money is the big issue. It's great when you read all those "lovely" articles in The Daily Mail about how women should stay at home with their children, but who's going to pay the mortgage?

From 1st April we get 6 months full pay then 13 weeks at 90% and a further 13 weeks unpaid. Its the ONLY reason I work there!

I worj for the NHS and I got 6 or 8 weeks at full pay, can't quite remember, then 50% pay plus SMP until 26 weeks, then unpaid for a further 6 months if wanted.

I took 6 months paid, a month unpaid and then accrued holidays and bank holidays to get 8 months off.

I work for a very small company and live in Spain. All I´m entitled to is 106 (3.5 months) days at approx 100 quid a week and my boss is not adding a cent to that. On top we are subsiding another 2.5 months from savings so I can have 6 months off. It sucks but I knew the situation when I got pregnant so what can I say? Well, I knew she wasn´t obligated to give me more but she´s normally pretty generous so had hoped she´d offer something. Nope.

Unfortunately a colleague last year took maternity leave and boss offered her 80% of her salary and in the end she didn´t come back to work, nor did boss ask her to pay the money back (they had drawn up some agreement which meant she could have). But that´s it from now on, anyone else who has kids is screwed.

purplelostprincess, to work out your 'average' earnings your employer has to look at what you were actually paid in the 16 weeks before you started maternity leave and work out an average weekly amount based on that - if they just pay your maternity pay based on your contracted hours they may be breaking the law. Of course this does mean that if you cut back your hours in the weeks before you take maternity leave it could impact how much money you receive while you are off. If there are any general pay increases (i.e. cost of living increase) given to all employees this must be accounted for in the maternity pay calculation.

HTH

Thank you abgirl, I thought that was the case. The people I work with are lovely and it probably won't be a problem but I want to make sure I'm armed with all the facts rather than just nod and say yes!

I work in the public sector and will get: 10 weeks full pay, then 16 weeks at half pay (i.e. equivalent of 18 weeks full pay). I can take up to a year off and can stagger my hours when I return (i.e. go back 1 day a week, then increase to 2, then 3 etc). We have fab flexible working too, so we can work from home/compress hours etc.