Work only told me 17 days before I'm due that they wont give me materntiy pay

[Razpoot]

This is stressing me the hell out! They only told me a few days ago (after trying to contact them for weeks about what shall happen with my maternity leave and pay) that they looked at my earnings, and I don't earn enough to get maternity pay! They're expecting me to start maternity leave on the 6th (I'm due on the 17th and my work is starting up again on the 15th, I've been on furlough since March if I'm remembering correctly) and they suggested I get a maternity allowance from the goverment. I've applied for the allowance application by mail as I don't have a printer so now I have to wait for that to come, and there's also documents I need to send out like my MAT B1 which I'm not even sure how I'll get right now as my midwife is on holiday for two weeks. It's going to take so long to get everything sorted.

I can't believe they have left it this late to even warn me of any of this, that they only just realised now I'm not eligible. Is this even legal? Anybody have any advice?

[quote CrashingCymbals]Maternity Allowance is backdated so if it does take a while to come through you will still be paid it. You can't get 2 MATB1 certificates, work need to give you it back. Are you eligible for a Sure Start grant? Sorry ugly link www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant[/quote]
Yes, I'm eligible for the grant, i applied for it a while ago so that's good. Ah, i didn't know I could only have one, I'll need to phish it off work then sigh, hopefully they can give me it asap

Just call the central number- just requires any midwife or nurse to sign and stamp it. They are usually very helpful

@GreekOddess

To be fair you should've checked this out yourself.

They reassured me early on that they would give me maternity pay and I was eligible. I've been trying to contact them for a long time about what will happen next but I just had radio silence until now where they've turned around and said I cant get it

"They do have my MAT B1 form, I gave it to them as soon as I could. I'm saying I will need another to get a goverment maternity allowance"

No you don't need another. As PPs said, your employer needs to give your MATB1 back to you, and they also need to give you an SMP1 form. Given they're so late in doing this you should put pressure on them to do it ASAP.

You might also be eligible for UC, this depends on your partner's income, any savings either of you have, and whether or not your rent. You could use a benefit calculator like Entitledto or Turn2Us to check.

Yep, I've just emailed them now asking for the SMP1 and my MAT B1. Really hoping they get back to me soon. Also yep I get universal credit

FYI, it is the pregnant employee's responsibility to notify her employer (preferably in writing) of the date she wants to start maternity leave - the deadline for doing this is about 24-25 weeks (the exact timing depends on your due date) so for you that would have been around the end of March. Obviously that's when lockdown started so it might not have been on your radar and your employer wouldn't have chased you either.

Once you've done that, your employer then has 28 days to return your MATB1 and give you the SMP1, but if you didn't tell them in the first place, they haven't missed the deadline.

However, now they've finally told you that they won't pay SMP, they do have to give you the SMP1 within 7 days.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/how-to-get-your-maternity-pay/#h-if-your-employer-doesn-t-give-you-form-smp1

Also, given that you're already on UC, the timing of your maternity allowance claim won't be a huge issue, because your UC award will go up when your pay stops, and then when you get MA, it will be deducted from your UC, so you won't be better off overall IYSWIM.

Remember to update your UC account with the change of circumstances 1. When you start maternity leave and 2. When baby is born (because you'll then get the child element, you will also need to claim child benefit)

[quote AnotherEmma]FYI, it is the pregnant employee's responsibility to notify her employer (preferably in writing) of the date she wants to start maternity leave - the deadline for doing this is about 24-25 weeks (the exact timing depends on your due date) so for you that would have been around the end of March. Obviously that's when lockdown started so it might not have been on your radar and your employer wouldn't have chased you either.

Once you've done that, your employer then has 28 days to return your MATB1 and give you the SMP1, but if you didn't tell them in the first place, they haven't missed the deadline.

However, now they've finally told you that they won't pay SMP, they do have to give you the SMP1 within 7 days.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/how-to-get-your-maternity-pay/#h-if-your-employer-doesn-t-give-you-form-smp1[/quote]
Ahhh I see. This is really informative, thank you. God lockdown has really messed everything up. Thanks for the advice on the universal credit too, I'll make sure to do that

Wrong thread?!
Reported.

My work place gave my mat b back to me. They just photocopied it

@Razpoot

Yep, I've just emailed them now asking for the SMP1 and my MAT B1. Really hoping they get back to me soon. Also yep I get universal credit

If you already claim Uc then if you also claim MA it is going to be deducted pound for pound from UC, so it's up to you whether to claim it, you won't be financially better off but I think it may give you a better class of NI credits and is paid fortnightly I think. Just letting you know this so you don't go to a lot of trouble for no gain.

Yes it does give better NI credits (class 1 instead of class 3) so it's worth it for that. Plus fortnightly payments as you say.

Also there is an ongoing legal case to try and get MA treated the same as SMP for UC claimants, ie treated as earnings (rather than unearned income) which means the claimant would get to keep some rather than having it all deducted.

Not much to add but just to reassure you I’ve had to apply for maternity allowance as I was on a contract that ended just before COVID kicked off and wasn’t able to continue working on a new one due to being high risk. Gather all your payslips and follow the instructions on the PDF for the maternity allowance and it will let you choose your best paid payslips. I picked the ones over Christmas where I did lots of extra bank shifts (nursing) and had more money. If I remember correctly after applying I got a text message confirmation it had been received within a day or two and then about a week later got a letter saying how much I would receive. It was backdated that week as I applied late at about 29 weeks I think. And I got my first real payment yesterday

I’m not much help on the maternity allowance side of things. But my work lost my Matb1 form and I couldn’t get hold of my midwife so I just went to my local maternity hospital day clinic reception and asked for another one there and got it no problem.

Ring maternity action ASAP they’re fantastic

Hi, so again thanks for the reassurance and advice everyone. I got the maternity allowance form today, and work has gave me my SMP1 and MAT B1 by email. It says on the allowance form though the MAT B1 has to be the original, will it be okay if it's just this copy they've gave me because of the coronavirus situation? Also, they spelt my name wrong on the SMP1 eye roll and put down the wrong address (somehow mixed up two addresses i've had, put the house and number of one with the postcode of the older house) is this worth asking them to adjust?