Would I be unreasonable to request this?

[lostmyfeckingkeysagain]

I currently work in a school, full-time hours term time only. I recently put in a flexible working request to reduce my hours to four days a week from September 2018 and had it accepted.

I've just found out I'm pregnant and all being well will be due early November. I'm now regretting making the flexible working request so far in advance as I'll be working full time for most of my pregnancy, then going down to four days just before I go on maternity leave and my maternity pay will be based on my new part time hours.

Would it be completely unreasonable of me to ask if we can now delay the reduction in hours until I return from Mat leave? Or would they think I'm being really cheeky??

I see no reason for them to agree to your request
There is no benefit to them

Isn't maternity pay based on your hours in your qualifying weeks?

You could ask on the basis that you would then be able to leave things more organised and don't feel it's a good time to cut hours just before you go off for a long period for the sake of stability.

Don't mention mat pay and they don't have to agree but you could spin it as a positive and see what they say.

insancerre that's pretty much what I was thinking.

Hunters I'm not sure, it's been five years since I had DC1 and cant remember how it all works. When would the "qualifying weeks" be?

It’s really cheeky! You don’t want to work full time, which is why you requested part time, your employer agreed it, and now you want to change the terms again purely so you can get more maternity pay! I think it would reflect badly on you to request it tbh

No harm in asking. Even if they think you’re cheeky so what, all you’re trying to do is get yourself a bit of pay based on what you’ve worked most of your pregnancy anyway, hardly the world’s most heinous crime. All they can say is no.

Although SMP is worked out based on the earnings in the 8 weeks prior to the 15th week before the baby is due so might be worth checking the dates :)

Surely you can ask, and if they think you're cheeky why does it matter? The worst they can say is no, and it might be more convenient for them to have you full time before you go off

I really don’t get why it’s cheeky either it’s not like the mat pay comes out of the OP’s bosses pockets, is it?

Have you worked out how much you will lose? Also worth checking how it is calculated because you may find the difference is marginal. And of course, check the qualifying week.

I think the qualifying week is something like week 25.

Temporary no I haven't as I haven't actually had my dating scan yet so not 100% sure of my due date and completely forgot about the whole "qualifying weeks" thing until someone mentioned it upthread.
Have just done an online "due date calculator" (not sure how accurate they are??) and it predicted my due date as 29th of October. So if that's accurate I will be working my new hours for about 6 weeks at the most before going on leave.

But you're talking about qualifying weeks for statutory pay. Surely your school offers contractual mat leave pay that's higher (at least at the beginning), you need to know what that is based on.

qualifying weeks are weeks 17-25 of pregnancy (8 week period up to 15 weeks before birth)

You should be fine then. The week's pay is based on total earnings in a particular week or weeks not what you earn at your due date. It's been a long time since I did mat pay calculations.

Personally I’d hold onto the 4 days. After may leave there could be a new head who’s anti part-timers, more people on flexi so it’s not viable anymore or any other reason that prevents you getting 4 days. It’s becoming harder to get in many schools, I’d sit tight on it

OP, I think hipshopshap makes a good point. I think you should think about how you would feel if you work full-time right up to going on mat leave and you are subsequently told by the school that it is no longer convenient for you to switch to part-time working - the choice is come back on full-time hours or not at all. If it's really important to you to come back from mat leave on part-time hours, I wouldn't request any changes.

Occupational maternity for schools is usually based on the contractual salary as at the day before your mat leave begins - for LA schools anyway, academies and independents can obv do what they like but most former LA schools seem to have carried on with the burgundy/green book entitlements for the most part (in my experience).

Assuming you're non teaching staff (as you mention term time working) so is your entitlement first 6 weeks at 90%, then 12 weeks half pay plus SMP, then SMP only?

If so then as above, your SMP won't be affected as it's calculated on weeks 17-25 so it's just the 12 weeks half pay that will be calculated on the lower salary.