Employers pension payments during maternity leave.

[JetLi]

My employer makes contributions to my pension based on a percentage of my salary. Whilst I am on mat leave they want to only make contributions based on SMP. Is this right? Or should they be making contributions based on what my normal salary would be?
Can you link me to anything that spells this out in black and white that I can send to my HR dept.?
Many thanks

Look at webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.berr.gov.uk/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page34244.html#Statutory#Statutory

Specifically....

"During any period of ?paid maternity leave? ? regardless of whether this is Ordinary or Additional Maternity Leave ? an employer?s pension contribution should be calculated as if the woman is working normally and receiving the normal remuneration for doing so. ?Paid Maternity Leave? is when the employee is receiving Statutory Maternity Pay or contractual (occupational) maternity pay, or a combination of both. In other words, if an employee takes 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave followed by thirteen weeks of Additional Maternity Leave, returning to work when the period of Statutory Maternity Pay comes to an end (see Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance), the pension contributions the employer makes should continue throughout the whole period as though the woman was working normally and had taken no maternity leave at all. However, if, rather than returning to work when the period of paid maternity leave came to an end, and employee remains on leave and uses up the rest of her Additional Maternity Leave and is not paid for these final 13 weeks, the employer need not continue the pension contributions during the unpaid leave unless the contract of employment provides otherwise."

During maternity leave, an employee is entitled to all contractual benefits, except pay- I believe that Employers Pension Contribs are a contractual benefit, and therefore should continue, based on your normal salary rate, until you return to work.

Thank you for the info. HR have suggested that the company can take a "pension holiday" from paying my contributions

here

They need to continue making their normalmpension payments during maternity leave.

During the period of OML, the employee?s contract of employment continues in force and she is
entitled to receive all her contractual benefits, except for salary. This means, for example, that
contractual annual leave entitlement will continue to accrue. Other benefits in kind such as
private medical insurance, life assurance, permanent health insurance, private use of a
company car or laptop and gym membership should also continue. Pension contributions
should continue to be made. Employee contributions will be based on actual pay, while
employer contributions will be based on the salary that the employee would have received had
she not gone on maternity leave.

Just got this off the FSB website - it clearly states that the employer has to maintain their pension contribs as if the woman wasn't on mat leave.

Thanks very much Ellypoo & Trixy - now to convince the HR manager...

Thank you so much for bringing this up JetLi and for your clear answers everyone else - I had no idea. I have just worked out my employers owe my pension pot several hundred pounds from my last maternity leave. Time for a chat I think!

idrilis no you're not entitled to benefits once you've left employment. Once you meet the criteria for SMP you do still get that, but it's a statutory payment reclaimable by your employer. They don't have to continue with pension payments, holiday pay, bonuses or any other benefit once you've left.

hi...hijacking too... is there any instance where you are entitled to benefits through the maternity period once you have been made redundant though?

No, not legally, there's no entitlement to benefits provided by your employer once your employment has ended.

thanks (although not what i wanted to hear...)