Teacher's maternity leave

[MrsStephens]

Hi,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm a newbie here!

Basically, what I want to know is what maternity pay I will be entitled to. I'm a secondary school teacher and I have looked on the internet and on the Times Ed website and there seems to be lots of different information out there.

I haven't asked at school because I'm not in the situation to (seeing as though I'm not actually pregnant yet!) I casually mentioned the topic to my head of dept at school and he said another member of the department is currently off and has 6 months fully paid maternity leave because she has been with the same LEA for so long (only about 6/7 years). This is VERY different to anything I have read!

Anyway, I have been at the school since the beginning of June and will have been teaching for about 4 years when it all hopefully happens (not sure if that would make a difference to the pay I'll get, thought I'd mention it just in case).

So, if anyone has had a similar situation, your help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks :)

It's different with each company my friend is entitled to full maternity pay by her work, but I was only entitled to 90%over 6 weeks then SMP (just Over 500ish a month) you may be entitled to child benefit/ tax (can't remember the name of it) but you don't get this until the child is born and registered and it can take weeks afterwords for back payment. You never know what you will be entitled too at the time it should say in your contract or handbook.

I definitely didn't get 6 months full pay!

This is a good guide.

Also, your HoD may not actually know what your colleague is getting. There's no reason for him to know what she's being paid. Certainly my colleagues were surprised at what my maternity pay was (they all thought it would be more!)

I got 13 weeks on full pay and then up to 6 months in total on SMP. This was 10 years ago. I think you still get the same but can get 9 months on SMP and then 3 further unpaid. Contact your union or try one of the union websites. It is standard as far as I know.

Ask your union?

I work in a primary school, this is my third year there and I'm going on maternity leave end of march. I'm not a qualified teacher and will but have been told I am entitled to statutory maternity pay which you can find details of on the government website (sorry I'm a bit forgetful at the moment can't remember how long exactly it's for don't want to misquote to you).
Hope this is helpful don't know your school or qualifications so can't give more details then that....
(guessing from your post that your ttc, hope it all goes well for you!!!!!!)

Thanks for the swift responses guys.

I don't know why I'm stressing about it so much - tbh it doesn't matter what I get, it isn't going to change my plans! Just something else to think about rather than the giving birth bit I suppose!

:D

I'm a teacher on mat leave. I got something like 6 weeks full pay, a few months on 90%, a few months on 50% and then completed the rest of the 39 weeks on SMP. Currently now post 39 weeks on no pay, and will go back just before my 52 weeks is up.

Oh, and you get that after working there for a year. Before a year you get less, but still SMP. Which is about £128 a week I think.

NUT has clear info on this - try their website. Depends how long you've been in the LEA for - was your last school in same one or different?