What did you get for mat pay?

[riab]

Just wondered what you got from your company in the way of mat leave/pay etc.
Was it just the stat minimum, did you get extra, did you get offerred back to work interviews, what about leave for dads?
And for those who are back at work now, how about flexible working hours, promotion prospects compared to non parents etc?

What would have made the most difference to your life in terms of pay/benefits/leave around your family?

Full pay for 6 months. I work term-time only. Feel completely stuck to my employer because of flexible working patterns (for now)

its been 10 years since i was last on mat leave but i got 6 weeks at full pay, followed by 6 weeks at half pay followed by 12 weeks at stat maternity i think

however it was definitely better. as the first one to use our new enhanced package i took full advantage of the fact that the employment department (big top 5 law firm) forgot to stipulate in the congtract that we had to return to work for 3 months. they simply stipulated we had to return to work otherwise we would have to pay the enhancement back. i returned to work and promptly handed my notice in. they changed the contract after that

This will vary greatly.
In my experience from my research, the civil service have the best mat benefits.
The police are very poor, teachers even worse.
Nursing is okish. 13 weeks full pay based on last 2 pay slips.
Then half pay for 8 weeks i think then smp.
I was cunning and saved up AL and used that to tag on.
Negotiated my back to work hours.
No flexibility in working hours.
Could not have contemplated promotion on 4 hours sleep a night for 2 years. However coleagues have and were promoted without problems.

In terms of what would have made life better...Full pay for duration on mat leave.DEFO would have eased many worries.

Tinker - very enviuos! I got the bare minimum. Thats the downside of having worked in a charity. I got the Statutory pay, 90% for 6 weeks then £100 a week which was quite a big drop!
DH got 2 weeks pat leave on £100 a week (an even bigger drop) and took 2 weeks annual leave.

The things I'd like to see would be:
1 month on full pay for both partners
flexible leave; so a choice between 6 months on full pay or 9-12 months on halfpay/ statutory minimum
transferable leave between parents

I also wish the 'parental' leave was either paid or more flexible. DH can't really afford to take a full week unpaid - either in financial terms or in terms of the amount of work that would backlog, but to take parental leave it has to be in blocks of 1 week plus.

I was a teacher at the time - nearly 5 years ago now. I had moved schools though and didn't qualify for SMP, only maternity allowance.

Through work I got 2 weeks full pay, 4 weeks 90% pay, then 12 weeks at half pay. I got MA for the whole of this period also.

i have worked for 2 different charities & had fairly generous maternity pay from both riab, so i don't think that necessarily follows. the first one, i think was 16 weeks full pay then 10 weeks half pay. the second was 6 weeks full pay then 20 weeks half pay + stat maternity pay. i added on holiday (full pay) both times, & my current employers also gave me 4 weeks parental leave at full pay. and yes, that's partly why they're still my current employers!

hoxtonchick, I got told they couldn't give me more than the stat minimum cos of funding restrictions.
tbh if I'd been offerred a better mat leave package I might still be working there.

Yep, definitely doesn't matter who you work for. I work for a national company - over 2000 ees throughout UK - listed on the stock exchange, etc and still only got min - same as riab.
Yet I know people who have been lucky enough to get 6 months full pay.

As a techer under Burgundy Book (LEA employment) I got.

4 weeks full pay
2 weeks 90% pay
12 weeks half pay plus SMP (at £100 per week from 6 April 2003)
8 weeks SMP
26 weeks unpaid leave

My best friedns is a police woman and her mat pay is far better than mine. She gets full pay for 13 weeks. She has also accrued 4 month Time off in lieu so will start that striaght after her mat leave so she can be off on full pay for 7 months if she wants to

As a teacher in 2003 I got 13 weeks full pay, and 13 weeks statutary (which I think was £100 per week then).

As a SAHM in 2006, I got a SureStart Maternity grant of a big fat £500!!

I work for a FTSE 100 company and just get the statutory minimum which I think is shocking.

Another big global company here - and still only get bare minimum. Which doesn't stop them trying to wriggle out of even that by building a spurious disciplinary record to get rid of you - seems my maternity(?) replacement will be off-shore, and I've been given a warning for saying I can't travel there to do training in the last month of pg. Err ... even if I wanted to the airlines wouldn't let me fly that late, and the company insurance wouldn't cover me to travel. Last 2 female staff I knew who went on maternity leave were both made redundant as soon as they returned.

stat pay and made redundant on return to work - fanatastic!!

it was 3 or 5 weeks FULL PAY and then £105 pw (whatever the MAT pay is) for the rest of the months (total = 6 months)

i used to work for Abbey Motor Claims dept full time (big company)

I work for a medium sized national charity. I got 6 months full pay (with the option of taking it as half pay for a year). I know how lucky I am!

have to repay if you don't return for 6 months - in which case stat pay only.

dh got 2 weeks on full pay - so not too bad. would have liked the option of splitting the mat leave with him.

I work for the nhs and have had 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay plus SMP, then a month unpaid, then I have a months worth of accrued annual leave that I'm currently taking.

Worked for big international IT services company in skilled IT position.

Statutory minimum only - 90% for 6 weeks, then £102 a week or whatever it was for another 20 weeks. On going back they have been fine about practical flexibility e.g. working from home odd days and then one regular day a week, having to take leave or work from home at short notice if DS is sick, etc. And I've had a pay rise every year since going back when I hadn't had one for a couple of years beforehand.

I think this is largely down to the fact that the maternity leave/pay is decided by national management under direction of glabal management, who are a bunch of stingy good-for-nothings, while the practical flexibility and pay rises are under the control of local management.

Most difference to my life would be pay, really, but that's because I have a reasonable amount of flexibility. If I didn't then it would be flexibility.

LSG - Can't you just say that you would be delighted to travel to do the handover if your company can find an airline to carry you and an insurance company to insure you? Can you appeal against the warning [sorry, have outraged hackles rising here on your behalf]?

Mind you, I am in the process of scaling it back and switching to being self-employed in a different field, which is partly because I want extra flexibility (not wholly because of that, though, and I'd probably have done it anyway within a year or two even were I DS-less)

I work for an investment bank - got 6 months full pay, no strings attached BUT

no flexible hours, was forced to change job on return and they are now trying to wriggle out of promoting me

Was in the Police last pregannat in 2002

Got 3 months full pay , then went on SMP, whilst on SMP my DH also Police , got my housing allowance.Was on matenity leave for 6 months with each child.

Could have up to 9 months maternity leave.

Went back part time after both children, no problem arranging part time working now on a career break.