Leaving for maternity leave early

[Disinterested]

Hi all, hope I've got the right board and sorry if this is a jumbled mess - I am on my phone.

I am 3 months pregnant and in a miserable job. It's both physically and mentally exhausting and just really horrible, to be honest!

I won't return to work following maternity leave (SMP as my company doesn't provide maternity pay) and I am fortunate enough that I won't have to work once baby is here.

Honestly, as bad as this may sound, I just want out. My SMP wont be given until the 5th of November at the earliest.

I am just wondering what my rights are with regards to leaving early (5m pregnant) and beginning unpaid maternity leave until my SMP can begin? So, for example, commencing my maternity leave in September and having September and October as unpaid maternity leave and then my SMP will begin 5th of November?

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

You are allowed to be sick in pregnancy. If you are physically and mentally exhausted and not able to cope your gp should sign you off sick.
You would be paid according to your companies sickness pay policy. Or statutory sick pay.
If you are sick after a certain point in your pregnancy, I think it's 30 something weeks you maternity pay would automatically commence.

To add to the above If you're signed off then maternity leave automatically kicks in at 36 weeks. Do you have lots of holiday days you could use up at the end before you start maternity leave? I don't know when the earliest you're allowed to start maternity leave from is, have you asked hr?

Only 6 days annual leave left unfortunately. :(

Earliest I can start paid maternity leave is 5 November (or a week prior should I use my remaining AL). I'm just curious as to whether it's within my rights to start ML earlier than this but just unpaid until the above dates.

I don't think I could be signed off for so long and despite loathing the place and how they treat their employees, I wouldn't want to leave my colleagues understaffed and having to do my workload when my employer could have some warning and replace me earlier.

Thanks for the comments :)

I'm no expert but I think you can only take maternity leave from 11 weeks before due date and your SMP payment is calculated in a specific qualifying period, so if you are on any sort of unpaid arrangement or sick pay at that time it will affect the amount of SMP you receive. I would start by finding out when for you the qualifying period would be before you try and put any sort arrangement in place.

There's no right to unpaid leave or unpaid mat leave prior to the start of statutory mat leave and pay. Your employer may agree to let you take some unpaid leave prior but this would be entirely at their discretion.

Bear in mind that your SMP entitlement is calculated based on your total earnings during a set period (the 8 weeks/2 months upto the 'qualifying week' which is the 15th week before you're due) so taking unpaid leave from 5 months could detriment your SMP calculations depending on exact dates.

Thanks a lot for those replies. It's looking to not be a good idea then.

If I was to hand my notice in, would i qualify for maternity allowance and does anybody have any idea of how this works? I'm sorry for all of the questions and appreciate all answers.

You can't have unpaid mat leave and then mat leave. You can start maternity leave on the Sunday of the week where you are 29 weeks pregnant at the earliest but it will mean you get your 39 weeks of SMP starting then.

If you have unpaid leave during your qualifying period (weeks 17 to 25) then you will not qualify for SMP at all.

If you really hate your job and want to quit now, and can afford to do so, look into whether you are eligible for maternity allowance instead of SMP.

Ah, crossed posts. How many weeks pregnant are you now, what is your due date and what is your notice period?

I am nearly 12 weeks (11.5). I know I'm being a tad premature but with how things are I know I won't be able to last here another 4 months and I would have handed my notice in already had I not have been pregnant.

My due date is the 17th of January and my notice period is 4 weeks.

I was very ill during my pregnancy and so didn't work from about 5 months but it meant I didn't qualify for SMP so you need to think about that. If you don't need it then I would just quit!

Are you 11+1 then if your EDD is 17 Jan?

If so, you can start maternity leave on 30 October and your 90% and eligibility for SMP will be based on what you earn during 6 August to 8 October.

Have you been in continuous employment until now? If so, you should be eligible for MA. Just call your DWP and run through your employment history and income with them. It sounds like it might be better for you.

You need to still be employed on 1st Oct to qualify for your SMP (you can be working your notice). If you can't make it to 1st Oct, have a look at whether you're entitled to maternity allowance if you leave sooner.

For MA you need to have been employed for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the baby is due, and earned £30 per week for 13 of those weeks. You claim it through the job centre and full rate is the same as full rate SMP just without the 6 weeks at 90% at the start.

There's an online eligibility calculator here www.gov.uk/pay-leave-for-parents

Fuzzyowl is much more succinct and also a faster typist than I am

Thank you so much for your very helpful answers. I am embarrassed to have gotten my dates confused - yes I am 11+1 not 11+5 (let's blame baby brain already).

It appears that maternity allowance may be the better option for me. I have been continuously employed by this company since May last year so no worries there!

One last question, do you have to go to the job centre weekly to pick up the money or is it just paid directly?

Thank you so much again you have really helped a very confused and frustrated lady!

It's paid directly to you, either weekly or four-weekly (your choice). No need to traipse to the jobcentre!