I have a question regarding my eligibility to Statutory Maternity Pay and hoping someone can please advise. Please bear with me as it's a little long winded and complicated - well at least to me who has no experience of maternity pay etc!
I have just found out I'm pregnant. Due date is 23rd September 2021.
I've looked into my eligibility for SMP and apparently I have to have been working for the employer for 41 weeks before the babies due date. Therefore the latest date for becoming employed with this employer in order to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay would have been Saturday 19th December, 2020.
One of the issues is that I am a little confused as to what my start date is with this employer (NHS Nurse Bank). Initially I thought it would be the day I did some kind of paid work with them, either a paid training day or a paid shift. However looking at guidance on NIDirect, employment commences the day that the offer of a contract is made, whether that be in writing, verbally etc. A conditional offer was emailed out to me on 10th Dec 2020 which I accepted the same day. I am currently in the process of them obtaining references, PVG etc before I can actually start. However I haven't actually picked up a shift yet due to delays on training, pre-employment checks etc.
So can anyone advise on, based on the above info, if I would be entitled to SMP?
I appreciate that this is long winded however I am very unclear and don't want to ask HR about taking time off for maternity seeing as I haven't even done a shift yet! I will get in touch with them in due course obviously, but was hoping for a bit of possible guidance as to my rights before doing so.