Maternity Pay Question - Paycut 2 weeks before I go on maternity leave

[Hfarm1]

Hi so I am currently in a seconded role that I have been in for nearly a year. Two weeks before I start my maternity leave my secondment ends and I am due to go back to my substantive position which is £10k less in salary.

Will my maternity pay be based on my secondment salary? My work provides 26 weeks full pay if you've been employed for more than 26 weeks which I have been. I'm just not sure how the whole 'qualifying week thing' works?

Appreciate any info on this, I've worked my whole budget around my current salary for the first 26 weeks because I was assured my secondment would become permanent

It’s going to depend on your employer. For mine, the full pay part of maternity leave is based on your pay the day before maternity leave, so you’d get the lower rate.

In terms of your statutory entitlement, it’s based on the qualifying week, so you’d get 90% of your higher rate. Your employer may (fingers crossed!) use this for your contractual pay as well. You’ll need to ask for the policy.

I assume you’ve exhausted options to extend your secondment by a couple of weeks? It would make more sense for them to keep you in the position. Or it might be financially better for you to go on maternity leave two weeks early, so you’re going from the secondment, rather than the substantive position.

For me my mat pay is worked out on my pay between weeks 15-26 of pregnancy. It's worth talking to your payroll or HR department or it may even say hat they base mat pay on in the maternity policy.

Thanks for your replies. My HR confirmed the first 6 weeks will be based on qualifying earnings for the 8 weeks leading to 15th week prior to due date (so my higher pay), and the remaining 20 weeks will be based on my lower pre-secondment salary.

What is really frustrating is they are planning on making me interview for the higher rate job whilst I'm off, making it permanent (if I get it). So despite working at the higher rate the year before my maternity leave, and returning on the higher rate as permanent my maternity pay is going to based off my lower rate salary. This just seems like I'm being screwed over a bit really for the sake of two weeks.

Could you start your maternity two weeks earlier so that you are still on secondment when you start?