Company maternity pay & childcare vouchers

[lizzywig]

My company pay SMP and have company maternity pay. CMP is paid as 7 weeks full pay on notification of return to work and then 13 weeks half pay when you return to work in line with your first pay day.

When I went on mat leave I was on £24900 and so when I notified then of my plans to return I was paid 7 weeks full pay based on that. Several weeks after I received this lump sum I had a pay rise, new salary being £25709.

On 1st July I opted into the childcare vouchers scheme (my company only enroll people on 1st Jan & 1st Jul) and was told that I would get my first vouchers in my first return to work pay day. I also received a letter saying that my salary of £25709 would become my notional salary and my salary (after childcare vouchers) would be £22793.

I returned to work on 23 July and on my first pay day recieved an SMP payment on my pay slip. I also recieved childcare vouchers which the company paid for as I was still only earning SMP.

As my return to work was a day after the salary cut off date they informed they they would put through the 7 days I'd worked from 23 July and my 13 weeks half pay on the following pay day, which is due to be this Friday.

I've just received my pay slip and the calculation for my CMP has been worked out on my new lower salary. I'm not sure if this is right. I have done some research online but it appears to me to be somewhat vague. I am horrendously unwell at the moment though so I might not be taking it in properly.

The way I see it is that it is maternity pay and my company handbook calls it company maternity pay, so why base it on any other figure than that of my salary during maternity leave? I can understand if they want to deduct the £243 (that they paid for) from my 13 weeks half pay at the higher salary but it seems to me that it should be the higher salary. My handbook also states that I will get 50% of basic pay - what is basic pay? I know it's before tax but is it my nominal salary or my new lower salary.

The handbook also says 'under the rules governing this kind of arrangement, the reduced salary is regarded as constituting your actual salary going forward and you will be understood to have given up your right to be paid at your current level'. This is fine BUT shouldn't maternity pay be a figure based on being on maternity leave?

I am good friends with our HR lady so will approach this softly and as a query but I wanted some MN feedback so I know if I'm totally off course with this one.

Thanks!

They are correct to calculate your CMP on your new salary. However you should receive childcare vouchers covering the period you are on maternity leave even if you don't actually get them until you return to work.

Your basic pay is now your new, lower salary. That is how salary sacrifice schemes work.

I think she needs to have been receiving Childcare Vouchers before going on maternity leave in order to be entitled to them during mat leave.

I would argue that if she wasn't going on maternity leave she would presumably receive vouchers immediately. She is therefore entitled to them whilst she is on maternity leave.

I didn't opt into childcare vouchers until 1st July though so why would they backdate childcare vouchers for especially as DD wasn't in nursery at that point?

I've had another look online and I think that yes you're probably right. I'll suck it up but I'm annoyed that they didn't tell me. If I had known I wouldn't have opted into the scheme as DH works for DD's nursery and could have sacrificed the entire cost of nursery fees through his salary, thus meaning I wouldn't have reduced my salary and would have received my entire lump sum maternity pay. I'm annoyed that they didn't tell me. I can see that once you opt out you don't get any 'missing' maternity money or any other money 'refunded' to you but what about it they didn't tell me to start with? The terms and conditions don't seem clear to me as a way of identifying that they calculate the maternity pay on your new salary - why when my first lump sum was based on my old salary? Shouldn't they have clarified this with me?

Also a friend of mine (same company) who was on maternity leave at the same time of me but returned a week later is in a similar position. She returned on 1st August and effect of that date had a payrise. However they worked out her maternity lump sum based on her old basic salary. For example:

Old nominal salary: £26000
Old basic salary: £23084
New nominal salary: £29000
New nominal salary: £26084

Now she did have childcare vouchers all the way through her maternity leave for which the company paid. I can't help but think that they should have made her maternity pay based on her payrise if we're going on the basis of what has been said for me?