I'm slightly panicked because I think I'm going to lose out on both SMP and Mat Allowance from my second job, which will mean we'll struggle. But maybe someone out there has any insight?
Job 1 is easy. Been there 7 years, work 3 days per week continuously and have been receiving a wage the whole way through. They have a great HR department that knows what it's doing. No probs.
Job 2 is the issue. Started in January 2022. It's a lectureship where I teach two courses a year, one per semester, and I'm paid September-December, and then February-May.
Baby is due Dec 28th. Ordinarily I would begin teaching again w/c 20th Jan 2025 but I really need to take maternity leave that semester...
I had a baby in June '22, but didn't need to take any mat leave because I had a bit of time to recover before teaching began again. I learned then that I counted as being 'continuously employed' by Job 2, because I was able to take mat leave and collect SMP from Job 1, without needing to stop work at Job 2. Great.
The tricky bit is that unfortunately, because of the way we're paid, I didn't earn anything from job 2 between 29th May and Sept 27th this year, despite being continuously employed and expected to earn again on September 28th. Unluckily, I think the period they use to calculate SMP falls within this time. 😢I might be entitled to mat allowance, but I already know I can't claim it for Job 2 at the same time as SMP from Job 1.
HR and finance are a bit useless. They are trying to work it out. The annoying thing is that if the uni spread out payments over the year (which they sometimes talk about implementing), I'd definitely earn over the threshold for SMP and I'd be fine. I'm paying the same amount of NI and tax however they break it down.
Anyone out there have any experience of this? I realise it's pretty specific to HE.
For financial reasons, I'm thinking I may need to return mid-semester if I can't get SMP or mat allowance. Not ideal for anyone, students included.