Maternity pay, got my maths all wrong!!!

[CreamyCoffee]

Hey ladies,

So I'm 20 weeks pregnant and started with a new employer in July. My initial hope was to complete the 26 weeks required to get smp, and during that 26th week, which takes us to first few weeks of January 2021, tell them about my pregnancy to get smp. But although I've read about it, I've completely blanked on the fact you're legally required to tell your employer at least 15 weeks before your due date, which means I have to tell them before/on my 25th week of pregnancy, which is only a few weeks away. I'm on a contract that doesn't offer fixed hours, so my concern was that they'd reduce my hours so as not to pay out much smp.. sighs

Shes several weeks out. Most of SMP can be claimed back and Maternity Allowance is not paid by the employer at all

I would recommend you tell your employer about the pregnancy, you won't get SMP anyway but it wouldn't be affected by a drop in hours after 25 weeks.
Keep a record of everything and make sure you have a written trail in case you need it, however maternity discrimination is hard to prove. They could explain a drop in hours as unrelated to your pregnancy and it's on you to prove otherwise (I was told I was wasting time applying for a promotion because I was pregnant and my manager did everything in her power to get me to quit my job but because it was my word against hers I couldn't so anything other than see it out for the sake of maternity pay).

I suppose a big question is do you want to go back to that job after maternity leave?