Mat leave & another pg

[Ellypoo]

Hi
I'm sure that this will have been asked before, so I apologise if I'm repeating someone else.
One of our members of staff is currently on maternity leave, due back in January. She has spoken to her line manager to say that she is pregnant again and so will be back for a few weeks in between accrued annual leave & next maternity leave.
I am just not sure what to tell her about pay - she will have been employed by us, but will have been on SMP/no pay by the qualifying period for her next lot of maternity leave, so I don't think she will be entitled to SMP, but I assume that she will be entitled to MA instead - is this correct?

For that level of detail - the best place to check is the Direct Gov or Business LInk websites

I've looked on the gov.uk website, but it's not really much help - it doesn't give any guidance on this situation.

I thought you were entitled to smp if you had been in employment for x weeks when your mat leave starts and that maternity leave is classed as employment therefore they would be entitled to smp this time round too.

Yes, she will have still been employed during the whole period and so meets all the criteria for SMP other than the pay bit because she won't have earnt over £107/week during the qualifying period because that falls during the final unpaid period of this maternity leave - I have just read the HMRC guidance, and I think it's pretty clear that she won't be entitled to SMP. I just want to find out if she is entitled to MA instead?

This is a couple of years old but may help.

That exact thing happened to me, wasn't entitled to SMP but claimed MA, which if I remember was the same rate as SMP, I just had to claim it myself from the job centre. It was pretty straightforward though..

Thanks!!