Maternity allowance for second baby while on first maternity leave! Please help

[Holalisha]

Hi. I am currently on maternity leave and due to return after a year on the 21st June. I won't be getting paid the last 3 months of this.

A few weeks ago I found out I am 9 weeks pregnant with my second baby (so happy) and I will be due on or around the 12th October.

I am trying to work out if I will get SMP which I don't think I will as week 17-24 I will be unpaid due to the three months unpaid.. what happens next? Will I be entitled to maternity allowance? How do I go about this? I'm so confused!

Yes you should do. I was similiar however I didn't go back after 9 months for a few months first. You send you pay slips of maternity allowance (send the ones with the most pay). I ended up sending my smp pay slips as actually got more as only went back part time. I think it's 80% though so I got about £20 less a week

For MA:

In the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you must have been:

• employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks
• earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks - the weeks do not have to be together

It will be your SMP that will count towards your maternity allowance although you will get 90% of that or £151.20 whichever is lower

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/how-to-claim

Does your workplace have an enhanced maternity package? You may be able to skip the SMP/MA debate because of that, but it would depend on the wording.

I'm assuming you're 9 weeks today, would you want to return to work at the end of April and cut this maternity leave short? Assuming you qualify for the full amount of MA, the only difference between that and SMP is the first 6 weeks are at 90% pay for SMP but the standard rate of £151 for MA. So it might not actually be much of a difference if it then means you need to pay childcare costs for an extra 3 months to get the difference!

Thanks for your replies they are really helpful.

My work have been really awkward when I discussed going back (before I knew I was pregnant) and are only letting me go back my normal hours minus an hour which will be Monday to Friday 8am till 5pm. I was going to look for another job but then found out I was pregnant so may as well wait and still be classed as employed all the way through my second maternity leave so I don't have a gap on my CV when applying for other jobs if that makes sense? Not sure if I'm doing the right thing

Planbea- no they don't have any maternity package at all. Literally just 90% of my earnings for 6 weeks then I went straight onto SMP. X

I'd say your options are either SMP (which you'd have to return to work early for) or MA.

If you're earning £30k a year, the difference between the two amounts is about an extra £2k for SMP, so wouldn't really be worth paying extra in childcare to return early to get SMP.

Claiming for MA you can pick your best 13 weeks out of the previous 66 weeks earnings from your due date. You could pick the 13 weeks from your return to work date, as long as you start your next mat leave from 37 weeks or later.

If you find another job in the meantime, you would be entitled to the same amounts so I wouldn't let it put you off applying for a job if you see one you like. But I know I couldn't be bothered with the effort in job hunting while pregnant with a one year old, I'd stick to what I knew for now personally, and think about it after!

Planbea- thank you that does make sense. I earn £25k so not sure what that would be but I suppose there's not much I can do either way as it is what it is. I read on that link you can apply for MA from 26 weeks pregnant so I'm going to have to wait and see. Just dreading telling my work as I'm not going back in between and I know they will be really funny with me!

But yeah I agree I'm definitely not going to bother looking now until I'm ready a few
Months before I go back to work 2021 and then look for something else!!

Thanks for your help

MA totals £5,896.80 over 39 weeks if you are eligible for the full amount, SMP on £25k is £7,578.63 over 39 weeks (I have a spreadsheet which I used when I was applying for jobs and TTC to figure out if it was worth job switching or not). Unless you have free childcare it's probably not worth having a few months extra nursery costs for anyway, never mind the emotional impact of a change of plans! Best of luck with your employer anyway. And if they're awful about it, you only have a few months till you're away again anyway! Hopefully it goes quickly!