Am I entitled for SMP?

[momtob]

I am 30 weeks Pregnant today. I started work on 15 August 2010. My baby is due on 27 April 2011. Am I entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay? I have looked at the rules but it is a bit complicated.

A good rule of thumb is that if the baby was conceived in the employment you are entitled. You need to have been employed for 26 continous weeks by the 15th week before your estimated date of delivery which is basically employed for 41 weeks by your due date. I think you get in (just about) but you will need to count the weeks!

I make it 26 weeks to the 17th August and 10 weeks until due date.

I'm sure this means you don't qualify for SMP but you still qualify for MA which is £123 ish a week. The same as SMP but without the 6 weeks at 90%.

What Grevling said, doesn't sound as though you will be entitled, no. You completed 26 weeks (6 months to make it easier) service this week, and as you only have 10 weeks until your due date you do miss it by some way.

Thank you all for your help. I thought I would get the SMP. The baby was conceived 1-2 weeks after i started my employment. I expected the due date to be 1st or 2nd week of May. After the scan, I was told that the baby is due on 27 April 2011.

Even if the due date was 2nd week of May you would still have missed it. If it's 10 weeks til due date now, it would still only have been 11/12 weeks until due date had the due date been in early May. You need 26 weeks service by 15 weeks before due date.

As I'm sure you know, pregnancy dates are calculated as pregnancy starting from the first day of your last period, so if you conceived a week or two into pregnancy, you would have been 4 or 5 weeks pregnant by the time you found out a couple of weeks later, maybe 3/4 weeks into your job.