Maternity Pay

[joanne31221456]

Hi,

Just after some advice. I am in the UK and my employer has said they are only paying me for 33 weeks of maternity. I thought we got paid for 39 weeks. Can somebody please help me out on this please. Thanks x

Hi @joanne31221456 Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is paid for up to 39 weeks. 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks and then £184.03 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks. Maybe they're getting confused and just stating the second portion at the lower rate? That could also mean they're going to pay you 100% for the first 6 weeks which would be nice. I would certainly go back to them on this and point them in the direction of the government website if required.

defo 39 weeks, mine just finished now. u get paid 39 weeks just after u finish ur last day in work. so if ur pregnant and u still have 5 weeks to go, that already counts as the 39 weeks

They have actually offered me 16 weeks at 100% pay but then said the following 17 weeks would be at statutory maternity pay. This would only mean 33 weeks of paid maternity pay. I didn't know if it was down to them how long I had off paid. I have queried it but it just panicked me abit. Thank you for your response

oh right so it's more weeks paid at 100% that could be the reason.
normally us only 6 weeks paid at 90% the rest is less

They need to explain you as it's 39weeks as far as I have understood and checked gov website which PP had posted meanwhile.

To add if they have policy in place that company pays 16w full they still need to pay remaining 23w as '£184.03 or 90%'.
That's my understanding and that's how I and my friends in different companies got paid too.

This is correct

You should get 16 weeks full pay on the enhanced scheme of your employer and then 23 weeks at statutory.

is your partner taking any shared parental leave? The 39 weeks is shared in this case so your partner could be taking 6 weeks parental leave leaving you 33weeks pay?

No my partner isn't taking any leave.

i would just give you the advice of contacting ACAS, i had problems with my employer regarding maternity as well, and as soon as i said i spoke to acas it took them 3 days to fix everything up

Regardless of the enhanced part of the pay you should still get SMP up until 39 weeks.

@Tooooxi i will give them a call on Monday. Thank you!