Maternity leave and pay nhs

[Goldielockes]

I'm really panicking so need some help please.

I just found out I am pregnant yesterday. I bled on 27th June for 3 days so I thought this was my period but probably it wasn't.

The problem is I just moved to a different nhs trust and I hate my job. I have worked in the NHS for 15 years. I have an interview for a job in another Trust in two weeks. I don't know what to do now.

I am assuming I will get maternity allowance (not sure how much this will be in the nhs) but will not get statutory maternity pay because I've been in my current Trust less than 5 weeks.

The new job I am applying for will pay 5 grand more than I get now. I only need to give 4 weeks notice because I have not been in the Trust long.

What do I do? Is my maternity pay going to be horrendous? We are in the process of buying a house too. We have been trying for 2 years and I was about to have an investigative laparoscopy but found out I'm pregnant. I really wasn't expecting it to happen given that we tried for so long.

Can anyone provide any advice?

Hey, fellow NHS worker on mat leave here. As long as you moved from one NHS trust to another then that's fine, it counts as continuous service, which means you will be entitled to occupational mat pay too.

This site was a lifesaver for me!

www.rcn.org.uk/Get-Help/RCN-advice/maternity-toolkit

It would've been different if say, you worked for one Trust for 15 years, then left the NHS and worked for a supermarket, then had only been back in the NHS for 6 months and found out you were pregnant. You need to have been in the NHS for something like a year by the time you're 6 months pregnant or something like that to qualify for the enhanced mat pay package.

For instance, I worked in the NHS for 4 years, left for 2, then came back. Worked for a year then found out I was pregnant. Even though I had a break in service I'd been back in the NHS long enough to fulfill the qualifying period.

It's the same if you want to look for another job within the NHS whilst on mat leave. As long as the next job is still within the NHS doesn't have to be same Trust, then you don't have to pay back your enhanced mat pay.

Thank you for this. I read that I won't get any statutory maternity pay just maternity allowance is that right?

Sorry if I'm being a bit dumb. This is all very new to me.

Its continuous service so you will get normal maternity pay.

Thank you I had a look at this link. It's very reassuring 😁

@Goldielockes you will be fine, you will get enhanced mat pay :-)

I think you're getting them all confused.

Statutory pay: Approx £150 a week provided by the government, for those who are in paid employment.

Maternity allowance: provided by the government to those not eligible for statutory pay (usually because they haven't been in paid employment at all or not for long enough to qualify)

Occupational mat pay: what NHS as an employer basically offers as an enhanced package. If you qualify for this, you also qualify for statutory pay which will be included in your mat pay.

So for example:

Someone who has only been working for a short while will get statutory mat pay at £150ish a week. Some companies don't have an enhanced/occupational mat pay package which is all they'd be entitled to.

Someone like yourself who has worked continuous service will likely get

8 weeks full pay
18 weeks half pay plus statutory
13 weeks statutory
13 weeks unpaid

But obviously check with your payroll/HR dept, but that link I sent you is a pretty good starting point for the general rules.

Thank you. That makes more sense. I think the way it's worded on the nhs website I was looking at is what is confusing me. Thank you for breaking it down for me. It sounds like I will be OK then and not struggle with my mortgage which is what's worrying me the most.

Yeah you should be absolutely fine.

For context I was mid B6 when I fell pregnant, promoted to B7 by the time I went on mat leave.

I opted to spread my money across the 12 months. They calculated my pay on my B6 pay and on average I received £1400-£1600 a month. For June and July that dropped to £900 each month, so my husband topped up my wages.

For August and September (I go back to work end Sep, will have been off for 13mo 😭😭) I'll actually be on annual leave rather than mat leave so those moths will be full pay.

For full disclosure I also stopped paying into my pension for the duration of my leave period to top it up by £100.

Also dot forget to claim child benefit, if you're eligible, it's £96/month now for first baby!

Thank you for this. It's reassuring to hear. I've been worrying about it so much

I would look at your hospitals maternity policy. Mine has information on it which lists what to do if I’ve been employed by my trust for more than 12 months, by any nhs trust for more than 12 months and then nhs for a total of 12 months

Doctors get continuation in service but not some trusts don’t do this for other workers (I have found out recently about this as have been on secondment and was worried how it would affect my maternity pay)

Sadly it’s still slightly down to individual trust but HR should have it on your trust intranet as a policy which can be emailed home for you to take time to unpick. The new trust is not under obligation to send this policy to you before employment as the policies are technically confidential but you could ring and ask them?