Sick Pay into Maternity Pay - can I be forced to take at 32 weeks?

[sunnybobs]

Dear all
Looking for some help please with an immediate worry. I have been signed off for the past fortnight with pregnancy related PGP. Today I receieved a lengthy email from work including the following information:

"Your current sickness absence is a Pregnancy related issue. As such, if you are unable to return to work before the baby is born, your Maternity Leave will be deemed to commence 4 weeks prior to any previously notified date of Maternity Leave commencement or date of the birth, whichever is the sooner."

Now I was aware of the fact that if I was still off sick when I hit 36 weeks my maternity leave could be automatically started but as I had said months ago I planned to start my leave at 36 weeks I didn't think this would be an issue. Now from what they're telling me I have to take it at 32 weeks if I extend my sicknote as that is 4 weeks before my date of maternity leave. Does anyone know if this is the case? Direct gov just say about having to take it at 36 weeks? There's no way I can return to work as am finding the pain increasing each day/week rather than subsiding but am v stressed to think I have to take mat leave at 32 weeks because of this.
Any help/advice/pointers very gratefully taken thank you!!

That doesn't sound right, from what I remember (DS is 5months and I was off sick a week before I officially took mat leave) you can only be forced to take your mat leave from 4 weeks before your due date (so 36 weeks) if you are singed off sick with pregnancy related issues. Before that it is just treated as normal sick leave.

signed good luck with the rest of your pregnancy

Strawberry is right, its only after 36 weeks that you can be forced to take maternity leave. See the DWP guide.

"you are absent from work wholly or partly because of your pregnancy but before the date you notified (or before you have a notified date) and this absence occurs in the 4 weeks running up to the week your baby is due. If this happens your MPP will begin the day following the day you are first absent from work because of your pregnancy in those four weeks."

Of course whether you argue this is your choice: it may be easier for you to just accept being pushed onto SMP, but it sounds to me like HR have made a mistake (assuming you are in England or Wales. Not sure about Scotland.)

Sounds like whoever wrote the email misunderstood the regulations.

I would send back an email stating that as you are due to commence maternity leave on x date which is 4 weeks before your due date any way, early commencement due to sickness is not applicable to your case. Then attach a link to the DirectGov page and ask them to confirm that they understand they cannot insist you begin your maternity leave earlier than 4 weeks before your EDD (expected due date) not the date your were originally due to go on maternity leave and that you not be starting your maternity leave until x date as stated.

No need to mention about if birth comes first. If you've not yet started it your maternity leave would start on the day after birth any way regardless of whether you had been off sick or not.

This is really helpful everyone -Thank you so much for taking the time to reply as I was getting myself into a bit of a stressed state about it. I also took the time to contact my union who have confirmed that I cannot be asked to start maternity leave 4 weeks prior to planned maternity leave date. Now heres hoping work agree and it was just a misuderstanding as I don't think I can face arguing at the moment!
Thanks again for the advice.

You're welcome :)

I really do think this is just someone making an error and i would think no more about it once you've emailed them back. I would be very surprised if they didn't get it right then but if in the extremly unlikely event they didn't, I can talk you through the next step or your union can - after all that's what you're paying for.

People get stuff like this mixed up all the time because they deal with it so infrequently. That's why good HR management is so important - we should know because it's our job. It's also our job to help clear up the mess when people get it wrong(!)

Hi ya, have been signed off with the same thing and had exactly the same issue. I just wrote an email back directing them to the guidance (politely) and they have accepted that now. I remember how stressful it was at the time now - you've got enough to worry about already! x