If I'm off sick near the end of my pregnancy will my maternity pay be reduced?

[Lefty99]

Hi,
I have an occ health meeting this morning as I'm currently off sick near end of pregancy and signed off for 4 weeks. I'm just having a panic that this will affect my maternity pay? I am off sick on full pay but even so is there something about SSP that would impact on my maternity pay? I'm on quite a low income so can't afford to loose any more money. Can't find any answers on Google. Thanks for any advice x

Someone who knows exactly how it works will be along in a minute to advise you but if you are off sick after a certain point in your pregnancy, I thought that it meant your maternity leave started then?

Depends what your signed off with. I'm sure someone with knowledge will come along soon but they can start your mat leave early if your off with pregnancy related illness.

Thank you! My sick note expires about 5 weeks before my due date and I think if you're off in the last 4 week's then your maternity leave has to start early. What I'm not clear on (in addition) is whether my maternity leave would just start 4 weeks early or whether it would start at the very start of my sickness (Aug)...

It shouldn’t affect your actual maternity pay as the weeks that they base that off are much earlier along as far as I recall, like others have said though depending on what you’re off sick with they could bring your maternity leave forward though

@Thegirlhasnoname that's so reassuring thank you!
Do you know if they would bring my mat leave forward by the entire period of the sickness or just 4 weeks?

I have 3 weeks of annual leave booked to take before my due date so if I wasn't able to go back to work I could ask them to bring my mat leave forward just by one week rather than the full amount, but I don't know if it's an automatic process or not.

No not at the start of your sickness only four weeks before they can start your maternity early.

This is one of the reasons why Mumsnet is so good. Someone asks a question and within minutes, several people have been along to put the OP's mind at rest.

Amazing, thank you all!!
I'm was really stressing out.
Can always rely on good old Mumsnet xxx

I’m glad somebody else was able to answer that one as I was curious to know too! Hopefully your meeting goes well this morning

Here's what government says about the wage slips your qualifying pay is taken from:

To calculate your average weekly earnings your employer will average your gross earnings over a period of at least eight weeks up to and including the last payday before the end of your qualifying week. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week your baby is due.

So the 8 weeks leading up to week 25, weeks 17-25 usually. Mine use the two monthly payslips before week 25. If you were in and getting full pay in that period your mat pay isn't affected by being off sick later.

If you're off sick with a pregnancy related illness (I am, I'm 28 weeks), then they can start your maternity pay at 36 weeks. My employers are letting me put holidays in after they should start my mat leave which is good of them.