STUPID QUESTION.To do with the wording of my company maternity leave policy.

[rufusmacdoofus]

Is 'the end of the 15th week before the baby is due' the same as the end of your 25th week ??? I know i should be able to work this out but am having a complete crisis of confidence about working out my dates. PS this is unbelieveable important for the amount of mat pay i will get otherwise i wouldn't bother anyone !!!

you are right

Should be I counted back and forth and got the same date

Yes.

bggr. Have been trying to work this out too. You need to work for 26 weeks "ending with the 15th week before the EWC" to get SMP. My first day at work is the same day as the first day of my pregnancy.... Am hoping that the slightly vague wording will mean HR spend less time trying to work it out than I did and just give me SMP!

Go to TIGER (official government site), put in your information and dates and it will give you specific entitlement dates out as well.

Ok for anyone with 5 minutes to spare ( who am i kidding) this is why...

I am due on the 2nd June. My maternity pay is calculated using the average of the two monthly slalary payments made before 'the end of the 15th week before my due date'. I am paid on the 23rd of the month or preceding day/days if that is a weekend. What i need to know is does this mean they will use Feb and Jan or December and Jan. It will make a huge difference to me as i get a bonus in feb which will be included in the calculations. so any corroboration would be hugely appreciated !!!!! I think i make it by one day.

ps if anyone works for Barclays HR and can tell me for definate i would be forever in your debt !

Are you sure your bonus will be included? Mine isn't. But I don't work for Barclays

it is i checked, which is brilliant if i make it

I think they will go back to work out the average weekly pay of the relevant 2 months by date , not just take the average of the closest 2 months paypackets. So it might be 3 weeks from one , 4 from the next and 1 week from the next. That way you might get a little extra credit for your bonus if not all. btw I got my bonus included and for the first 6 weeks was actually paid more than my normal salary ! good luck.

Thanks LIZS. Does anyone work for Barclays HR ???????????

DH's stepmother used to, but that's not much help... especially as she's halfway up a mountain at the moment...

Hiya,

I don't work for Barclays HR, but I do work in HR and know that Barclays use the same payroll system that I have just implemented at my company and the liklihood is that your calculations will be therefore done on the same basis (all related to statutory stuff so tends to come as standard methods in big payroll systems in big companies).

Based on what I know of how this works, I would therefore suspect that your maternity pay will have your bonus included in the calculation of your average pay. However - it does depend on whether your pay on the 23rd of the month is for the whole of the month (i.e. some in arrears and some in advance) or whether it is for the previous month (i.e. all in arrears) or some other basis as to whether all of your bonus may get counted.
My best bet if I were you is to talk to someone in your payroll department. You are right though - it is usual for bonuses to be counted in average pay like this so if it works out - lucky you! I only wish I'd timed my baby like this!

Gill, I have a horrible feeling it won't be good news for you. I worked out once that you need to work for a company for 6 months before you get pregnant to get SMP. I started a new job and found out the next day that I was pregnant, and didn't get any SMP. I might be wrong though, sorry if that's incredibly unhelpful!

ELB1 - thanks you are a star. We get paid on the 23rd for that month in arrears and advance so hopefully it will be counted as i just scrape in. There was no timing i was breastfeeding and hadn't had a period so was really miserable about it till i found out i was 8 weeks pregnant ! had a really difficult time for years before getting preganant and staying pregnant so am chuffed to bits !

rufusmacdoofus

I work for Barclays HR and used to work in payroll in fact. I'm curently 6+4 (they don't know yet and I don't plan on telling them until I know what bonus award has been allocated for this year!) and I've been trying to calculate my mat pay based on the pay months that will be used. In my calculations (my baby is due around 2nd July) I have calculated that my 2 qualifying months will be February and March so will include any bonus (if I'm lucky enough and they don't move the boundaries again like they did last year) so If you are due a month before me, I calculate they will use January and February so any bonus would be used in the calculation.
Hope this helps.
LLxx

I work for Barclays and I had my DS in May 2005. They took my Feb pay and I basically got my bonus all over again when I was on Mat Leave - it was great!

derah - you don't have to work for 6 months before getting pregnant - it's only 1 or 2 weeks iirc (it depends, because weeks start on sundays, which can change things).

don't forget that your ewc can be changed by the sonographer though. mine disagreed with my dates and tried to make ds a week older. i was certain of my dates (i'd been charting) so pleaded with her not to as it would have meant losing SMP.