Missing out on maternity allowance by 3 days?

[Tabbycatrem]

Hi all I'm completely new here so excuse me if I do or say any newbie things!
My partner and I are in a complete mess about this particular problem!
I was a full time student until about a month ago so havent been working. About two months ago (just before graduating) I found out I was pregnant. Im now 13 weeks and have a new job lined up starting the 1st of August. The problem is my due date is the 2nd of February and I need 26 weeks of employment to qualify for maternity allowance. That takes me up to the 30th of January which is 39.5 weeks. Some things Ive read says that its 26 weeks before your 39th week, and some says 26 weeks before your baby is due. Either way I know I cant work right up till then so would have to take both paid and unpaid holiday in January, but I'm really worried I will miss out by on MA by 3 days. Is there any way they could be flexible on this? Or a chance the midwives would push the due date back 3/4 days? Or even the the employer would change the official start date to earlier even though I am starting on the 1st of August. I dont want to ask that of the employer as I havent even started there yet! Id normally be calling people but as its a Saturday I feel a bit helpless, does anyone have any experience with this?

Not sure if this helps, but when your midwife fills in the form with your due date on, the just put the expected week of delivery. Generally, the expected week of delivery for your due date would be w/c 29 Jan, but depending on how your dates add up they may date it as w/c 5 Feb , which would give you the 3 extra days (for example if you original due was was the following week but scan showed earlier etc)

Either way, I believe you would be entitled to maternity allowance anyway, which is slightly different criteria to SMP.

There was a similar thread a while ago where the OP would have qualified for better maternity pay if her due date was a few days further from her actual date.

The advice was to wait until the MAT B form (official form stating due date) was issued because often the midwife who completes it just asks for your due date rather than looks it up from your notes
So you can just tell her the date you need it to be.

And the further advice was if the form is issued with the date from your notes, don't hand this in, and go back a week later and say you've lost your form and can you get another one. Second time, you might get a midwife who verbally asks...

There will inevitably be someone sanctimonious along soon to say this is theft/fraud but you're a pregnant woman with dates swirling around in your head - no one is going to blame you for getting things mixed up

From what I understand about MA you need 26 weeks of employment within a test period of 66? Weeks (check the test period - this is off the top of my head) - this is taken from your due date. It sounds like you'll have 26 weeks of employment from august before your due date, anyway, but you may also use employment before this as long as it's in your test period. So - for instance - I'm due in October: my test period was July 2016 and I would have qualified had I worked 26 weeks from July 2016-October 2017 doesn't have to be continuous.

The MA have a really good helpline - google it or if you search for my user name I recently posted about MA and put the number on there.

And the holiday issue doesn't count; even if it's unpaid you're still employed. You only need to give them 13 weeks of payslips - just don't give them those!

You have to have 26 weeks of employment in the 66 weeks before the week that your baby is due. But you don't have to have worked a whole week in any of those weeks for the week to count. The week starts on a Sunday, and you only have to do one day of work in a week for it to count as working that week.

As you say, there are exactly 26 weeks between 1/8/17 and 23/1/18, which means that you could work until 21/1/18 and still get MA, or perhaps get an earlier finish by working and then taking holiday until 21/1/18, but 21/1/18 is your crucial date.

Thanks everyone! Some varied and good advice there! Thanks Seatofmypants I will give MA a call on Monday (typical I had this panic on a weekend). You've all given me hope that where theres a will theres a way!

Oh wow lougle really? That changes things! These dates and weeks are so much more confusing than they seem on the surface when you get down to the details of it! I will bring that point up with the MA too!

In fact, you only have to be employed for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks, not working, so it doesnt actually matter if you need to start your maternity leave early, because you will still be employed by your employer.

Bear in mind that you only have to provide 13 weeks pay slips to the MA unit, and that they do not have to be consecutive - you can give your best 13 weeks, so that your average wage is the highest it possibly can be.

In other words, if you are feeling really good one week, and you're offered overtime, you can use that payslip. If you get a cold one week and have an unpaid sick day, you can choose not to use that pay slip.

I was made redundant as soon as I told my last employer I was pregnant and I had to go in MA. I sent in my bank statements with my salary highlighted as I didn't have my payslips. Could you do that? And then count the weeks from your first pay to your last? For example if you left work on the 11th but you're not paid until the 28th? That would give you extra time.

Thanks lougle for all the information! It really sounds like a bit of a minefield to me! So looking at this I may well be entitled to MA, with potential to take maternity leave earlier than the 26 week employment mark so long as the EDD week is after that point (which it should be) phew!

Wow youcantarguewithstupid, were you actually made redundant because you were pregnant?? Im sure that was illegal? Im not sure if that would work as i think that would make it seem as though id been there an even shorter time, with pay being behind when you actually start work

They can sack you for anything unless you've worked 2 years -

You also needed to have earned an average of £175 per week for each of the 26 weeks to qualify for the higher rate (£140ish pw) of maternity allowance.

@GreenTulips yep I'd been there 18 months. So I didn't have a leg to stand on.

You actually only need to average £156.65 per week to get the full £140.98 in Maternity Allowance, because it's £140.98, or 90% of average earnings, whichever is less, and £140.98 is 90% of £156.65, which means you can get full MA on 21 hours per week of National Minimum Wage if you're over 25, 23 hours per week if you're aged 21-24, 28 hours per week if you're aged 18-20, but a full 38 hours per week if you're under 18 (although with education being compulsory until 18 now, nobody should be working full time at 16).

Bump!! What happened? I am in a pretty much identical situation. Did you get it in the end? I hope so

Hi!

I’m also in the same position, I will miss out on SMP by 3 days!! What did you end up doing? Thanks