Anyone good with the ins and outs of SMP and other Maternity Rights

[sillysow]

Hi All

I would really appreciate your guidance.

As it stands at the moment I am due to return to work after a full year having taken 3 months additional unpaid Mat Leave. Up until this point I have had company mat pay and SMP as I qualified for both.

When I return to work after the additional maternity leave I will be 20 wks pg . Will this have a negative impact on me qualifying for SMP again? I realise I will get the company mat pay as I am still in continuous employment. I know there is a window of time from which they calculate the entitlement? However it is all a bit beyond me!

I'm just wondering if I should consider returning to work sooner :(

Thank you for any help and advice that you can give.

The earnings are calculated over a fixed period of time "As a general rule, your earnings will be averaged over a period of at least 8 weeks up to and including the last pay day before the end of the qualifying week." - which is 15 weeks before baby due (see here). Ideally you want to be earning from about 16 weeks pg to maximise your 90% SMP payments.

You may want to check about the company pay. AFAIK you have to be in paid employment for 6 months in my company (civil service) to qualify for company maternity pay, I think being on unpaid leave doesn't count.

That may be different for your company, but I would double check.

You will qualify for company maternity pay as if you had been there all of this previous year - maternity leave (paid or unpaid & unpaid parental leave for that matter) counts towards continuous employment.

SMP is based on your pay in the 8 weeks before 25 weeks as LIZS quoted. However, to get SMP you need average weekly earnings in that period above the Lower Earnings Limit which is about £97 (pretax) at the moment. Depending on how much you earn you may still qualify as they will add up the total of paypackets in that period and divide by 8. If you reach the threshold but the average isn't as much as SMP (£124), then you will get 90% of the average for SMP instead.

In summary, you need to be earning at the very least over £200 (pre-tax) per week in weeks 20-25 (when you return) to being your averages over £97 over 8 weeks.

Hope that makes sense!

Thank you everyone. And FessaEst that makes real sense to me.

:)

Just to update, I have decided to play it safe by returning at 12 weeks :)hopefully that should ensure that I am entitled to company maternity pay and statutory as I would be stuffed without it.

Once again many thanks all