SMP and OMP - confused.com

[whatamigoingtodo87]

Right, I'm so confused and HR haven't been able to answer any of my questions and as normal don't seem to know the answers themselves.

Can you please help.

I work in HE, so at my current institute I get:

18 weeks OMP
39 weeks SMP
13 weeks unpaid

1. Does the SMP and OMP get paid together for the first 18 weeks? It's not clear to me and baby brain means my head isn't working, in the policy as it says:

Pregnant employees will receive Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for a total of 39 weeks of the maternity leave period. Tax and National Insurance contributions will be deducted from this amount.

For the first 18 weeks’ of maternity leave the employee will receive full pay (a member of staff who receives additional contractual entitlements such as shift allowance is also entitled to this amount). This ‘top up’ of SMP is called Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP). If the employee does not intend to return to work at the University (for a minimum of 3 months) after maternity leave then she will normally be required to repay OMP.

For the next 21 weeks’ of maternity leave the employee shall be entitled to the current rate for statutory maternity pay or 90% of average weekly earnings (whichever is less). Please visit the Department of Work and Pensions website for the current maternity rates.

2. if I don't go back to work (for a minimum of 3 months) I am required to repay the OMP would I need to repay 3 months OMP or the full 18 weeks? I don't plan on touching the OMP and will put into savings as I'm not sure if I will go back due to dodgy dealings with my manager.

Thank you x

I used to work in HE (in a HR capacity in fact) and also took mat leave....although entitlement was slightly different (6 months full pay, 3 months SMP).

For you, weeks 1 - 18 will be full pay (this will be made up of OMP + SMP which will equal your normal pay). Then weeks 19 - 39 will be normal SMP. Then the rest unpaid.

For weeks 1 - 18 they will pay your normal pay and reclaim the SMP portion of it from the government, but you wont see this on your payslip.

Good plan to hang onto the OMP. Fwiw I went through similar and had a pretty toxic relationship with my manager and I decided not to go back. However, I decided to tag my accrued annual leave onto the end of my maternity leave and then handed my notice in towards the end of my mat leave. Due to the point I was returning in the year I would have only had to have worked 6 or 7 weeks of my 3 month notice period. They decided that I didn't need to work it and not only let me keep the OMP but paid me for the 6 or 7 weeks that I wasn't working (payment in lieu of notice). I actually discussed this with my former nice manager (who was very senior) and she said that the university I worked for never actually asked for the mat pay back. I'm sure this differs between universities though. Might be something to bear in mind.

Thanks that's both good and bad as I will need to use some of the OMP then as I have no savings. I thought I got SMP + OMP = more than my normal salary.

I have a toxic relationship with my manager and HR have been useless, I'm seeking legal advice on the situation but they insist on trying to force communication. My manager sees she has done no wrong so is completely oblivious.

I have 7 weeks holiday which I plan to tag onto the end.

Sounds familiar! I used to have panic attacks in the night over the relationship with my manager. When I resigned I didn't even have another job to go to (I'm risk averse so very unlike me) but the relief was immense.

Don't forget that you won't have to repay your "full pay", it'll just be the OMP portion. So work out what the SMP would come to for the 18 weeks and then deduct from the full pay and that's why you'll owe. You'll also likely be entitled to child benefit - have you looked into that?

Also if you're using 7 weeks annual leave at the end then that will be full pay and might help you out repay some of the OMP if needed?

Also, just to pick up on their policy. The key is in this bit >> This ‘top up’ of SMP is called Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP).

So they're saying the OMP is a top up of the SMP, bringing it up to full pay for that period.