KIT days? Anyone know much about these?

[Jaaxe]

Hi wondering if anyone’s taken KIT days whilst on maternity leave? How did you manage if you were breastfeeding? When did you start taking the KIT days? Did it make much of a difference to your Mat pay etc?

I took a few, it was a long one ago though. Something to keep in mind is you don't have to attend for a whole day - a KIT 'day' can also be a meeting / half day / couple of hours etc

It's usually 10 days. It doesn't affect maternity pay as long as it's not more than 10 days.

@serenaisaknobhead do I not just get for the hours I work though?

• paid

No, you should be paid for the full day

ACAS link for more info:

www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/while-youre-on-maternity-leave

Be aware depending on where you are in your maternity leave and your terms you may not actually get paid much for them - it worked out better for me to do KIT days in the unpaid bits as my employer at the time was tight and deducted SMP from my pay.

also I think I recall a half day counted as a full day, so you couldn't do 20 half days. Double check this though as it has been a while for me!

I got told about this the other day so deffo going to look in to it, I know its ten days you can do and get a days pay on top of your mat pay, a pharmacy manager wS telling me about it.

That’s how it works. You can’t earn more being off on mat leave than you would in work.

I think it has changed now and they have to offer minimum wage plus SMP - for me it wasn't worth doing the KIT days until I was in the unpaid bit.

@Fairsquare ive asked for my pay to be split evenly over the full 12 months rather than 3 months of no pay, they can’t spread out or change the SMP bit but the occupational bit they’ve split over 12 months…will this make a difference if I do KIT days? Also are they not paid at your normal rate of pay? X

My KIT days were paid at my normal rate, really helped when on lower mat pay/ SMP!
I didn't do any until baby was 4/5 months. As PP have said you can just do a few hours and still get a whole days pay, I also did some bits online.

I was BF and when I went in for a whole day I took my pump and baby had a bottle, I built up a stash of milk knowing I'd need it for KIT days etc...

I helped with the payroll once a month from when my baby was 3 months old - I got paid my usual hourly rate and did about 7 full days worth of work

i was able to do it at home in the evenings when my husband was back to look after child

then I came in for 2 days another time when a lot of staff were on holiday just to answer the phone and catch up on emails and what else was going on :)

Just bear in mind that the dates must be agreed by both employee and employer.

Thanks everyone this is really helpful….Sorry to keep asking questions but is it best to do like 1 per month or leave it till later on and do 2/3 a month?

Remember you don’t have to do KIT days at all. Useful if you need the money during the unpaid or lower-paid bits but you don’t have to do it at all. I didn’t last time and won’t this time; I’m on maternity leave, not maternity with a bit of work faff.

Definitely worth checking this as I'm not an expert but I think if you switch to shared parental leave instead of maternity then you get 20 days you can use if your employer agrees (instead of 10). You need to make sure it doesn't affect any extra maternity pay you may receive from your employer - I know my employer tops up maternity pay but not shared parental leave for some reason!

I worked a few due to staff shortages on the agreed basis I’d wfh, although I wasn’t breastfeeding. The extra money was handy and I don’t think it affected my mat pay.

You will need to check with your employer- from the ACAS link someone posted above they can just pay you minimum wage.

it looks like it has changed since I did it - I worked a 7hr day which was almost exactly the weekly SMP pay and got nothing! I did it as a favour too - learned my lesson, no good deed goes unpunished.

I used a lot for mandatory training so I was up to date on my return. Breast feeding wise it was quite helpful because it gave my partner a chance to try and get my dd to accept a bottle. I quickly gave up expressing on my return to work at 9 months because I could never express enough to either satisfy her, or to maintain full supply. So she went to 80% ish formula fed and 20% ish breast fed. She was pretty happy and thriving on that though.

I did all 10 starting once my maternity pay stopped at 9 months! We get paid for the full day and I only did a few hours at the most. By 9 months breastfed baby was fine with food and water until I got back.

Oh and she started nursery at 11 months no milk or bottles, just food and water at nursery and boob at home. They adapt!

I found them handy towards the end of mat leave,
to go in from 10-2, say hello to everyone, check emails, hot coffee and prêt for lunch and basically just re-acquaint myself with work.

I only did a couple, but it definitely helped on the first day back.

I didn't do any as there was no point.

Nature of my work made them useless really. That plus I took all my AL at the end of my mat leave so any keeping in touch would be out of date by the time I went back.

I was paid normal rate for kit days I did 2 a week and used them for settling in to nursery. I was given 30 min on top of lunch to express milk too.