Maternity Pay Calculator - what next?

[MaternityMoney]

Hi everyone,

We've had great feedback on our Maternity Pay Calculator and we are now deciding what to build next to help mums-to-be with all the boring but important stuff around being pregnant and having a baby.

Here are a few ideas we've had from users and we'd love to know what you think:

• Maternity notice letters pre-filled, and ready to give your employer

• Maternity admin planner with reminders for all the important things you need to do (MAT1B form, claim child benefit, write a will etc.) and when to do them customised to your date date.

• Help arrange shared parental leave between you and your partner and your employers

Or if you have any other ideas we would love to hear them.

Let us know what you think!

www.maternity.money

I didn't have to I've a letter, and he reminded me of the rest so not really sure of any benefit to what you're offering. You gov has all the calculators anyway.

A calculator which calculates your work leave dates based on when SMP ends and OML ends. I can count to 39 - 52 but it'd be nice to have it done for me.
Actually it'd be nice if it also included accumulated annual leave and bank holidays too!

Are you sure about the pension contributions point? If you have a company with a good maternity policy, they might actually keep your pensions contributions over the relevant period the same even when your additional maternity pay runs out.

@Engard The Maternity Pay Calculator actually already accumulates holiday over maternity leave, and it gives you some options on how you might want to use the holiday that you have accumulated.

@leasedaudi Yes there are some different approaches by different companies to how pension contributions by the employer are made over maternity leave, but this does not normally affect employee contributions, which are what would impact take home pay. Would it be useful to show employer pension contributions as well?

Interesting! Thank you. Yes all the info on this would be super helpful!

How about sale of company shares during the relevant period? If they're paid into the regular pay then does that count? I'm TTC and working out how to maximise my maternity income if it works out.

@leasedaudi re. sales of company shares:

I am guessing here, and I am happy to stand corrected:

The answer is probably "it depends":

On the face of it sale of shares during the relevant period should not be included in your average weekly earnings calculation as they are an asset sale rather than compensation.
The proceeds of the sale would not typically be subject to PAYE and so would not be on your payslip.

However... under some share schemes, and depending on what if anything you paid for them, and if you have not held the shares for long enough when you sell them then they would be deemed a benefit in kind and would then be subject to PAYE and the proceeds would then be on your payslip (and get taxed) and get included in your average weekly earnings calculation...

I am not a tax expert and this is pretty edge-case stuff so, unless your HR team positively confirm for your specific scenario that they will be include in your average weekly earnings, I would think best to assume not.

Thanks maternity money, I've been given share options which I've recently vested, and I elected to keep some and sell the portion that would cover the tax liability that comes with vesting (if that makes sense). I would be interested to see what happens if I decide to sell during the relevant period!