Average maternity packages in the UK

[Liland]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get an idea of average maternity packages women are receiving in the UK right now (above SMP), in terms of pay and time off. I've had a google, and can't come up with anything recent and/or representative. My (very small company) employers wants to discuss my maternity package very soon, and I'd like some ideas on what to suggest. They already give me an extremely flexible working life which I'm very grateful for, and they're generally very good to me.

Thanks in advance!

Private sector- large business

3 months full pay
Then onto SMP

Jeez this makes me realise how rubbish the company I work for are!

I get the absolute minimum-6weeks 90% and then £145 p/week for 33 weeks only.

When I had my kids ours was
6 weeks full pay
12 weeks half pay plus SMP
21 weeks or whatever it was that took you up to 9 months at SMP
Last 3 months unpaid.

Now they offer full pay for the first 18 weeks and up to 15 months of leave off (all unpaid after 9 months)

I literally just will get SMP. 90% of wages for 6 weeks then 33 weeks at £145 per week. Truly awful

Got six months full pay, rest of the time just standard SMP as per legal minimum. Medium sized company, 500+ employees globally. London based and a fairly well paid industry.

@MillieMoodle I also get the statutory minimum. Grrr!!

6 weeks full pay
33 weeks 50% (including rather than + SMP)
Remaining period unpaid

I'm surprised there are so many better packages I never realised

The above is dependent on returning to work for a year

Really interesting thread. Sounds like you have a great employer, OP.
My company has improved its policy (halfway through my first mat leave so I didn't benefit, but I'm about to go off again!) to be:
13 weeks full pay
13 weeks 75% pay
13 weeks SMP
13 weeks nil
It used to be
13 weeks full pay
26 weeks SMP
13 weeks nil

20 weeks full pay, 19 weeks SMP, 13 weeks unpaid. I’m very lucky!

Work in Civil Service; have had 2 Mat leaves in the last 3 years and both were 6 months full pay followed by 3 months SMP. Couldn’t have gotten by without it to be honest!

Working for a FTSE 100..16wks full pay, up to 9 months SMP and can take the last 3 months unpaid

6 weeks 90%
33 weeks SMP
13 nothing

Stat may here - big telecoms organisation.

OP you'd surely be in breach of contract for working at home with baby there. We've had mums fired for attempting to do the same, it's very difficult impossible even with the most reliable napper to achieve.

I WFH, and have 2 - both are in FT childcare and I still work evenings when they've gone to bed.

My company just changed their policy and its so much better now: 6 months full pay, 3 months SMP, and up to 3 more months unpaid.

Large corporation

6 months full pay
Remainder is normal SMP entitlement
Normal KIT option too

As it's enhanced there's a minimum return to work term of 12 months to avoid paying back pro rata what the company paid you over SMP.

I'm self employed with no childcare and I do work full time. It is possible but you have to work really hard when they're asleep and when they are playing quietly on their own. And you have to be good at multitasking.

Mine is awful...

6 weeks at 90 percent
Upto 39 weeks smp
Then unpaid 3 months.!

Plus kit days which I intend to do!

One thing to bear in mind is that most employers who offer more than the minimum treat is as a "loan" with some sort of tie in.

My law firm offered full pay for 7 months (if you'd been there a certain amount of time, 5 years I think) plus 2 further months at half pay.

However anything that was above what is have got under SMP would have to have been repaid if I left the business within 2 years.

It didn't affect me but I think they also had a clause that employees were only entitled to the "enhanced" package if they'd been back from maternity leave for 2 full years.

Mine was 6 weeks full, 20 weeks 50+smp and then 13 weeks SMP.

Like a few others posters I’d be a bit cautious about your plans to work from home with the baby. My baby only napped on me during the day until 11 months so I wouldn’t have got anything done. I certainly can’t get any work done now I have a toddler. There’s been times I’ve tried to send a few emails on my non working days and every time I go to the computer she looks sad and says mummy play or she climbs on my knee to look etc.

I’d also visit nurseries now. Although I used nursery from 1 and my child loves it I don’t think I’d have liked leaving a smaller baby. If i needed to return to work at 6 months in a future pregnancy I’d look at a nanny instead.

Large global institution

12 weeks 90% pay
27 weeks SMP
13 weeks nothing

No claw back of any pay though if I didn’t return.

26 weeks full pay
13 weeks SMP
13 weeks nothing.

Plus all accrued annual leave - 8 weeks per year for me. So I've taken 14 months off both times.

I got the following as a teacher: Four weeks' full pay; two weeks' 90% pay; 12 weeks' half pay plus SMP; 21 weeks' SMP.
No holidays accrued though. It was a few years back so may be slightly different.

multi national corporation with 14 years full term service, so was entitled to full whack:

6 months full pay
approx 12 weeks smp
option of kit days and an extra 6 weeks unpaid parental leave
with holiday accrued took 14 months off
no requirement to pay anything back

I think what you can ask for depends on size of the company and length of service...my friends at small local firms got barely anything.

I deliberately stayed in a job that i had grown to loathe because of ttc...was v stressful

Large airline, 6 weeks at 90% and then SMP. And then they argued about paying for the accrued bank holiday pay during that year. I sent my boss’s PA (the one who’d said it wasn’t allowed) a link to the government guidelines/rules at the time and asked her why such a large company was trying to circumnavigate the law. It was astonishing how ignorant they were of the (then) rules given their size.