Maternity Pay

[123FirstTimeMummy]

Can someone help me understand maternity pay - I'm so confused

From my understanding my I will get the following;

SMP @ 90% Of Pay for 6 weeks
SMP Normal Rate for 33 weeks

Anything after 33 weeks is unpaid? If I'm wanting to take 52 Weeks off I don't get any paid for 19 weeks?

Yes that's right if your company doesn't pay any enhanced maternity pay.

Correct, unfortunately.

I got a shock when I looked up how much SMP is, too.

(If your company doesn’t offer extra)

It’s 13 weeks unpaid to make 52 weeks. Not 19.

The 90% is based on your earnings during a fixed period so if you can increase them at that time it will benefit you. Any reduction for sick pay etc will reduce the amount paid.

6 weeks @90%
33 weeks @ statutory
13 weeks unpaid

(unless your employer offers a higher level of pay)

You can take up to 10 KIT days - keeping in touch days - where you work all or part of a day and are paid. It’s worth saving these for the unpaid portion of leave!

Then on return to work you are owed your accrued annual leave and any bank holidays you would have been entitled to. Some women use this to extend their leave past a year, some end their maternity leave before a year but take the accrued leave before returning to work.

KIT days can help with the last 13 weeks. And you should be able to carry holiday over and accrue it while you are off.

This is crazy, how can anyone live off 13 weeks unpaid :(

13 weeks not 19 unpaid, but yes that’s correct otherwise. I don’t get any enhanced pay so I’m going back to work after 6 months.

Your 90% will depend on your earnings during your qualifying week. I went crazy on overtime during this time period to get as much as I could during my 6 weeks 90% pay.

You can go back to work before 12 months if you can't afford to take 13 weeks unpaid

Your partner/baby’s dad should be supporting you as well.

That’s why a lot of people return to work after 39 weeks.

When I had my eldest you only got 26 weeks pay. 6 weeks at 90% and 20 weeks SMP

Type in maternity pay calculator for employers and the gov link will come up it’ll tell you how much you get monthly. I don’t get maternity pay through work so worked mine out that way. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be taking more than 8 months off however don’t forget you still accrue holiday while off and bank holidays (if you’d usually get paid for them)

Most of us don’t, people either save up for it before ttc and during pregnancy, or go back to work at 9 months. You don’t have to take 12 months of you can’t afford it.

This. Your KIT days may also be Split. Some companies will pay any accrued holiday during your unpaid portion of Mat leave. Taking holiday before that will trigger the end of of your leave.

I'm currently nearing the end of 13 wks unpaid. I've taken accrued holiday during this time, kit days and we have savings. It is doable.

By the time I return to work with holidays used I will have had 13 months off. All paid in some form or another

Also worth checking if your partner's work gives them any additional pay for shared parental leave - my DH's work will give him 50% pay so I'm doing 9 months mat leave then he is doing 3 months shared parental leave.

Also we are reducing our mortgage payments for a year while our earnings are reduced, don't know if that might be an option for you!

It sucks..I have been with the same company 17 years and am in middle management but they will not offer any enhanced pay. I was lucky we had good sales in my qualifying period so the 6 weeks pay is more than it normally would be.
I had planned to take 2 weeks holiday before mat leave but I'm actually going to work that now and carry the 2 weeks over so will have accrued 6 weeks holiday by the time I'm due to return. That can then be used either to extend leave or I may take 1 or 2 days a week as holiday. It's tough but it's tough for everyone and we will all muddle through..when we sat down and did some calculations we were actually surprised how much money gets spent on random crap!

Couldn't afford 13 weeks unpaid so returned to work after SMP with both babies.

It’s rubbish. Mine was a surprise pregnancy and we were in middle of building an extension that went way over budget so had nothing saved for it. I ended up selling loads of my more expensive clothes on Vinted but now I’ve lost the baby weight I’m so sad and want them all back!

You save up before you have a baby.

We used £25k of savings to fund mat leave as I was the main earner and we still really had to cut down.
I got some enhanced pay but not loads (6 weeks full, 18 weeks half plus SMP, then SMP).

You can go back sooner if you want. You used your only get 6 months off maximum, at least there's now an option for extended leave and some employers will top it up

Save in advance or go back to work are really to only options.