SMP / Enhanced Maternity Pay

[KingaBee]

Hello all,
I'm very new to this forum as I recently found out I'm pregnant.

To my huge surprise and disappointment it turned out that my company doesn't offer anything above the SMP, which is likely to bankrupt me.

I will be trying to negotiate this but this is an international company with only a small 4-5 people office in the UK, and I've noticed they often don't realise what kind of benefits and general work culture companies in the UK, and London specifically offer. (The HR is abroad). I would like to be able to show them some example policies from other companies in the UK.

Could you please help me by letting me know if your company offered Enhanced Maternity Pay or just the bare minimum.

If so, were there any restrictions, strings attached, etc?
Could you also tell me what industry you work, and whether you are in London (I have a feeling more London based companies offer this because of the higher costs of living and a more competitive labour market).

I'd really appreciate your help and thank you in advance for any responses.
I'm losing so much sleep over this, and about to lose my mind too.

Thank you!

I put together proposals and included rival firms maternity packages but was to no avail.

SMP for me, we have saved a good amount though to “top up” SMP each month and cover the last 3 months unpaid.

Unfortunately a lot of companies still only offer SMP, its a bit shit but we’re much luckier than some countries that only get 6 weeks. I was lucky that i still recieved my car allowance during maternity so it bumped it up quite nicely but this time around i’m only on smp, its hard but I saved beforehand as much as I could

I always tell women now to always look at the maternity package when starting a new role, doesn’t matter if you want kids now or not but its definitely worth it in the long run to know what you can get.

Sorry not much but good luck, hope you manage to get more.

SMP only. We saved.

I got an additional 6 weeks at full pay which could be spread across the 39 week period.

That’s in a local authority - whose policies can differ but in my experience what I got was quite standard.

We saved c.£8k to afford for me to have almost a year off.

Just SMP for me.
We saved to top up monthly.
It's abit of a shock at first but you do learn to manage your money better

Hi @KingaBee

My organisation originally offered SMP and I managed to get them to enhance their offer based on my years of service, and by asking them to reassess their policy based on the changing standards across my specific industry.

I also noted my commitment to the organisation and I personally wanted to mention my intention to return - however I should say that my returning is not a prerequisite for the enhancement.

I am based in London but my organisation is a national charity based across England and Wales.

Hopefully you should now have 9 months to save. I saved 8k to cover my leave and DH covered all of our outgoings as much as possible.

I worked for a large international company & mat leave was 13 weeks full, 26 weeks half and 3 weeks SMP. I work in a heavily male dominated industry where they are trying to encourage more mid-career female professionals in though. I didn’t have to pay anything back.

I’m not personally in London, but we do have a London office so would be relevant there too.

The 2 companies I worked for both didnt include the maternity policy in the contract so I had to ask and was told its only SMP nothing more. Both were family run construction companies.

We also saved as much as possible, but I earmarked it for childcare after I return to work, as I'm not sure how I will afford that either.

My partner makes slightly less than me and our London rent is £1400 so you can imagine those savings will be gone in a flash.

I'm originally from a country (a significantly poorer than UK) which nonetheless offers 80% salary for 12 months maternity pay (or 6 months 100% and additional 6 months on 60%), and free state childcare after that. So this is a bit of a cultural shock to me.

Again, this is a bit of an unexpected pregnancy so we were caught off guard. It's really tricky also because companies don't reveal their maternity pay policies until you've actually joined (bar some really excellent companies which make it public).

Oh this is tough. Is the company US based? They get next to nothing in maternity leave.

That said I work for a us financial services company in London and we get 26 weeks paid. A few years ago it was 16 weeks but apparently they had completed 'research' and found they were out of step with the market. I don't have that research.

If you are going to negotiate you need to find a 'hook' that makes it attractive. What is in it for them? The only hook I can see if you push reduced staff turnover as once you are back you would be looking for a better package before baby 2.

Again agree with transparency of benefits - I really wish employers would be more public with all benefits at time of offering positions.

I work in Banking and Finance

Originally it was:
12 weeks at 90% of your monthly salary
26 weeks SMP

And then they changed a couple of months ago to this:
26 weeks full pay
12 weeks SMP
(thank goodness - surprise pregnancy here too!) Although we will still have to save to cover us for those 3 months I'll be on STP as i earn double what my partner does and his monthly salary wouldn't cover all our bills

London, Financial Services:
6 months full pay
3 months SMP

Husband's is:
London, FMCG
6 months full pay for both the primary and secondary care giver.

Now just need to get pregnant! We have been trying for quite some time!

@bertieb7

London, Financial Services: 6 months full pay 3 months SMP

Husband's is:
London, FMCG
6 months full pay for both the primary and secondary care giver.

Now just need to get pregnant! We have been trying for quite some time!

Wow. That sounds amazing. I hope you manage to get pregnant soon!!

And of course the irony is that I was told it would be very difficult for me to get pregnant due to my age and other factors and we were contemplating whether to even start trying to at all. I ended up getting pregnant from one tiny accident. So I count my blessings here.

@Lauren0902

I work in Banking and Finance

Originally it was:
12 weeks at 90% of your monthly salary
26 weeks SMP

And then they changed a couple of months ago to this:
26 weeks full pay
12 weeks SMP
(thank goodness - surprise pregnancy here too!) Although we will still have to save to cover us for those 3 months I'll be on STP as i earn double what my partner does and his monthly salary wouldn't cover all our bills

Yeah, I'm also the main breadwinner (without earning all that much), but I pay the majority of the rent. I'm resigned to the fact I would have to go back after 33 weeks anyway, I'm just hoping to survive it without going into debt

South West England in an admin job.
I have been in the company 3 years and I get:
3 months full pay
3 months half pay
SMP for the rest of the time.

Interestingly my husband recently changed jobs to a London based company, but whilst interviewing all the companies either listed their parental benefits as part of the offer or in the contract which he got to see before signing (contract has to specify I believe, though some said to 'see the employee handbook' which he asked for before continuing). I think how useful that is would depend if you have the benefit of multiple offers you're interested in or if you have you heart set on a specific job regardless of the benefits though.

SMP is pretty common, my friend just had her baby and that's all she got.
My other friend is actually London based and an international company & she got 6 months full pay and the rest was SMP. (She's also the breadwinner in her relationship too)

Non London but I'm getting 6 weeks full pay, 6 months at 50% and the rest SMP, though they're expecting me to do a flexible return to work between 6 - 9 months. I negotiated hard to get this though and I'm quite integral to the small company I work at, they don't intend to offer this to all employees who might go on maternity leave, their standard is SMP.

My other friend just changed jobs to a big international company with branches all over the UK & if shocked they only do SMP.

My husbands London company offers the most incredible maternity package I've ever seen which is 1 year full pay, but you get bonuses if you return to work earlier than the year and then for 6 months after your return to work you get to do 80% hours for 100% pay.

Only advice I can give is to give it a try asking for more but expect to just have to save as much as possible.
We've bought lots of baby things second hand and budgeted hard for childcare, luckily my job are keen to keep me so are letting me WFH one day a week and reduce my hours by 1 day without losing all the associated pay so it means we only have to pay for 3 days childcare rather than 5.
Children have an associated cost, we anticipate having less disposable income for basically the rest of our lives lol

@KingaBee are you eligible for shared parental leave? As the higher earner would it be beneficial for your partner to take leave? Perhaps they have a more generous leave policy?

I work in Oil and Gas...

Basic SMP for me unfortunately. Same for my previous company too.

London Finance
16 weeks at 100% pay
10 weeks at 50%
26-39 weeks at SMP

oh and you have to have had continuous service for 2 years at the due date (not EWC as some people's are, the actual date).

There were eight ladies in my NCT group; one a teacher and another worked in the NHS which seem to have standard national packages. Five ladies only got SMP with one working for a large global brand. My company offer six months full and three months SMP. We are based in the South West but I work for an investment bank with offices in London. You automatically qualify for the enhanced maternity package at my company and I wouldn't need to repay anything if I didn't return.

I was also going to suggest looking at shared parental leave, if you are the higher earner

Hi,

I'm in London. I get full pay for 3 months, 50% pay for 3 months, SMP for 3 months and 3 months unpaid. The shared parental leave is also the same as the maternity leave. We were hoping to so shared parental but my husbands company only pay statutory so not sure we will be able to. Good luck!

I work in the North East for a research charity & we get:

26 weeks full pay
13 weeks SMP
13 weeks unpaid

I think you have to have a set amount of continuous service to qualify but I can't remember exactly how long it is.