did I misunderstand company mat pay / SMP

[pennyapples]

Hello all
Just read something that has made me think I completely misunderstood company mat pay / SMP and that makes me question whether it is worth returning to my old job for the sake of second mat leave cover... but not sure if I have this right...
I thought my company offered a scheme that was 90% of my salary for 6 weeks and 80% for 7 weeks - on top of SMP
But now I've read that its actually SMP that gives you 90% for 6 weeks - plus the standard weekly payment - so does that mean my company actually only gave me the 80% for 7 weeks?
cos that's not a great deal - I could save that money in a more lucrative and more pleasant freelance position I think and save myself the horrors of going back.
have I got this right or am I just very confused!
grateful for advice!

You have misunderstood.

You will get 90% for six weeks, and then your company offers you more than SMP for the next seven weeks - 80% of your salary rather than dropping down to £109 a week or whatever SMP is. Then you will be on SMP of £109 per week for however long that runs for, I can't remember.

So again the 80% is what you get for those seven weeks, not 80% of your salary plus £109 week SMP.

Yes, the extra your company paid was whatever was above the standard weekly rate for the 7 weeks they paid at 80%.

However, if you're planning on claiming a second maternity leave then you might want to be aware that as a freelancer you'd be claiming Maternity Allowance not SMP. Iirc you won't get the first 6 weeks at 90% on MA, you only get the usually weekly rate that you get for the rest of it.

But now I've read that its actually SMP that gives you 90% for 6 weeks - plus the standard weekly payment - so does that mean my company actually only gave me the 80% for 7 weeks?

What do you mean by 'standard weekly payment'? You don't get 90% plus £109 per week, you get 90%. Otherwise your mat. pay could be more than your normal pay!

sorry by standard payment I mean the £109 or whatever it is

I can't believe I got it totally wrong! I thought it was quite a good company scheme - the 6 weeks and then the 7 weeks! what an idiot!

however - your point about freelancing kind of negates it I guess - in that I would have to save enough to also cover the equivalent of the first 6 weeks if I wanted to be in the same place financially for second period of time off work (assuming am lucky enough to have a second pregnancy that is of course)

so I suppose - even though its not the company paying me - there is still an advantage to being in full time employment...

but let me make sure I have this right - do you need to be freelancing for any period of time before you go off again to qualify for maternity allowance? and that is the £109 for the whole thing?

thank you so much for your help understanding

sorry just realised didn't make myself clear
when I said 'plus' I meant the combination of the six weeks at 90% (only) - plus the later payments of however many weeks at £109 (only)
I do get it - I'm just not very articulate today

There's some qualifying period for maternity allowance but I'm not sure what it is off the top of my head. I do remember that it either pays the standard weekly rate (£109 or whatever the amount is) or a lower rate (about £30 a week) if you have a small earnings exemption certificate. So it's worthwhile not getting a certificate and paying the NI instead if you're planning on taking maternity leave when freelancing, even if you're earnings are low enough to qualify for the certificate.