FTC and maternity

[lostindreams]

I'm currently on a 1 year FTC that is due to end soon. My company like many others is going through a rough time and I've been told contracts are only being extended by a few months at a time now. The thing is I'm hoping to get pregnant soon. If I do, will I qualify for maternity pay for the duration of the pregnancy? And will I have job to come back? I've not been on a FTC before so am clueless.

Sorry I mean maternity pay for the whole year!

I don't know. Smp eligibility is based upon 15 weeks before your due date and you have to be employed then I believe. If you are not employed or don't qualify for smp, you might be eligible for maternity allowances though which are similar to the weekly pay under Smp. Look on the government Web page for an eligibility checker.

In order to be entitled to SMP, you need to be employed during the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before your baby is due. If not, you may be eligible for Maternity Allowance.

In terms of return to work, that's would depend upon when your contact ends. If it ends while you are on maternity leave, you wouldn't have a role to come back to, but if it ends afterwards, then you would have the right to return. It would be unlawful for them to not extend your contract because of your pregnancy or maternity.

So I'm assuming my contract will just keep on getting renewed for a few months at a time. If this takes me up to when I leave on maternity leave, then the contract wouldn't just end because of that would it? You can't not renew a contract because someone is going on maternity can you?

@lostindreams

Sorry I mean maternity pay for the whole year!

Unless your employer offers an awful lot more than the statutory amount, nobody gets maternity pay for a year! It's a maximum of 39 weeks.

I think you need to be clear that whilst an employer cannot terminate a contract because someone is pregnant, they can terminate it for any other reason, including the fact that it's a fixed term contract that has run it's course. So if they determined not to renew at any time, you would struggle to prove that this was a result of your pregnancy.