Maternity pay - miss out by days - will midwife amend due date on MATB1?

175

I agree, don’t ask midwife at all as you are asking her to commit a crime. £4K is a lot of money. I would start saving aggressively. You have 20 weeks. And you could always start a GoFundMe. Missing the higher pay by days will strike a chord with people and who knows you get enough £20 donations, you could get £4K.

I had a really nice midwife who signed a document confirming I was living at a different address to the one that was on my hospital discharged notes. She had no proof I was actually in temporary accommodation but trusted my word and that made us able to get the address on the baby's birth certificate. I'll always be grateful to her for doing that.

There's no harm in asking but as it's such a big gap they I highly doubt they'll be able to do that. If it was a couple/few days then maybe but I highly doubt they'll be able too.
4K is a lot of money but I think you've just been unlucky here

Nope nope nope. That is an awful thing to ask your midwife to do.

Your best course of action here is to speak to your line manager and HE to see if they can apply any discretion to your maternity pay with it being so close.

That's a far better thing to do than commit fraud!

HR sorry not HE!

Would it not be better to ask your employer to see what they can do for you considering it's only 2 weeks? Defo wouldn't be asking the midwife to commit fraud 😂

Do you think my midwife would put my due date as 2nd May instead to help me out

No, it's very unlikely your midwife will want to help you commit fraud

I'm pregnant via IVF too and my dating scan brought the due date forward.
It looks as though you'd still be in the same situation though even if your IVF dates were kept as the due date.

I'm afraid you can't ask the midwife to amend the form, I know you're in a pickle but I think it would be considered fraud, asking her to lie for your financial gain so I wouldn't put her in that position.

Is there any way your employer would be flexible? Especially if you give some kind of written undertaking to return.

The midwife won't be able to do that.

You might have had a case to argue if you were asking about your IVF dates being used instead of a date calculated from the scan, as in that situation you could argue that you're wanting to go by actual rather than calculated dates (although the standard practice is to use the dating scan dates even for IVF pregnancies).

But the dates you'd be asking about aren't your IVF dates either - you'd be asking your midwife to commit fraud on a legal document, so that you can claim more money than you're legally entitled to claim. I'm sorry but that's not going to get you a good outcome and even asking could flag up concerns.

You'd be better off speaking with your employer to see if they have some flexibility.

Its actually quite disturbing that someone would ask a professional to put their career at risk like that.Its fraud...Speak to employers instead

I understand your predicament but absolutely your midwife shouldnot do that

I can’t believe you are even considering this.

I think it would be very wrong of you to put the midwife in such a position. Asking her to commit fraud for your financial gain.

Jesus Christ 🤦‍♀️

Lol at a go fund me. As if.

You would be asking a midwife to commit fraud!

@HayleySteve95 I'm sorry - this happens quite a lot, but the MATB1 form is a legal document and they have to use the due date from your scan. There's no leeway with it at all.

My MATB1 came through the post at around 22 weeks, although some people get given it at the scan, it depends if you've got a midwife appointment straight after I believe. But it's pre-filled out with the information which is cross-referenced with your NHS data.

They read one of the numbers on mine incorrectly; and it has held up my maternity pay massively - I'm now 37 weeks and it's only just being sorted - as it didn't match the other date on the system - and that was out by two days, which is much smaller than the gap you're asking for.

Congratulations on your baby. I hope you can find a way around the maternity pay issue, but it won't be changing the MATB1... Is there any hope for leeway in your policy? Or extra earnings now; a Christmas job for you or a partner? Would you be entitled to any additional benefits that would help in that period?

If it’s an IVF baby I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have waited just one more cycle to do it

No you can’t ask someone to commit fraud. But your pregnancy was more than planned why didn’t you time it a month later if it meant loosing out on 4K?

@MynameisJune not really. It was still a MATB1 form just Part B. My midwife signed it with a different address on the front bit so I had two MATB1 forms, one during the pregnancy and one after the labour.

I don't see the harm in asking. OP can/will ask the midwife and she'll just say no she can't do it. Not the end of the world but the OP should definitely speak to her work instead of getting the midwife to try and do this

Funnier still than thinking a midwife might just concoct a date out of the clear blue sky to help out OP is the suggestion of a Go Fund Me!

I mean seriously 😂

😂😂😂 @ a GoFund me. People would probably donate too lol