Maternity pay question

[Carly1210]

Hello i started maternity leave in September this year since then I recieved my first ever pay last month and have just had my October pay for this month. I'm very confused as I have just looked at the figures and I'm £200 shorter this month, yet my maternity pay leave has only just started. Shouldn't it be Worked out the same every month is this a error?
I'm worried as this is alot of money.

Have you asked for it to be averaged out throughout the year? If so that's because they can only do that with OMP not SMP and you don't get SMP at the very beginning as if not averaged it's the point you get paid more/in full from your employer.

It's not going to be the same monthly salary as you had previously.

In my workplace, your maternity pay is worked out weekly, based on an average of the two monthly payslips prior to week 25 of pregnancy.

Then you get maternity pay based on that weekly average amount and how many Saturdays there are in the calendar month you're being paid for. So on a 4 week month I'd get less than my normal salaried amount but on a 5 week month I'd get more.

This ^

if you contact your hr/payroll they should be able to provide you with a maternity schedule which lets you prepare for how much you’ll receive each month. It’ll go up and down but averages out correctly.

with my place we also don’t get pay rises after the qualifying period factored in, so that difference comes as a bulk payment at the end of the enhanced period.