Maternity pay

[SamPilling]

Hiya, I was wondering if anyone is able to help at all. I am due to go on maternity leave in October. The maternity document that was sent from my work says the first 3 months is full pay (inclusive of SMP) does anyone have any idea what this means?

So your employer will pay you full pay for 3 months, but part of it will be made up of SMP. So if you get paid £2000 normally, then you will still get £2000, but the employer will only be paying you £1400 and SMP the rest of it. Anyone feel free to correct me?

So the standard minimum for maternity pay is to have 6 weeks at 90% of your normal pay, then a lower amount (called the "SMP rate" for the next 33 weeks) - this amount is refunded to your employers by the government. The employer can choose to give more but that won't be refunded.

The policy just means that they will give you your full pay for the first 3 months and that's great, but they are making it clear that you won't be getting any extra above that amount as a less clear wording might be misunderstood as you getting your normal pay plus the SMP rate on top.