Civil service maternity pay question

[Stressedoutcivilservant]

I’m posting on mumsnet out of desperation for an answer (or hope!) as I seem to be getting nowhere with HR or my employer.

I’ve been with my department for around three years, I applied for and was offered a role with another department (promotion) sound three months ago. After endless chasing my line manager completed his part of the transfer form and sent this on to HR last week. It’s been dragged out to say the least. Obviously this should have been sorted months ago, and the issue I now have is that I start maternity leave at the end of this month.

My new department is being very supportive thankfully, but no one seems to have an answer as to what happens with my maternity pay, who’s paying it, at what rate, if I still qualify for my 6 months full pay, if I need to claim maternity allowance instead and honestly it’s really stressing me out now. I can see myself sat on payday next month with a newborn not sure of who to even call to ask what’s going on. HR in my current role have told me ‘they can’t discuss policy with me’ and my new employers HR haven’t responded to my emails, and any phone attempts result in waiting for 30+ minutes with no response. Obviously I’ll keep trying.

Sorry that turned into a bit of an essay! Long story short is more what happens when you transfer civil service departments while on maternity leave.

Argh, how blooming stressful. Also, it should be really easy for them to answer! Your 'service' started 3 years ago when you joined the CS - you don't start again when you change Departments - so you should get your 6m full pay. Have you started your new job yet? The policy should be on the intranet.

Also it's bloody awful it's taken him 3 months to complete the form. It takes like 5 minutes ffs.

Can you get some support from the union on this, they will probably have some experience.

@Willbe2under2 thank you - I really wasn’t expecting a response so quickly. Unfortunately due to my current line manager avoiding completing my transfer forms or agreeing to a release date I now won’t be starting till I return from maternity leave next year, but my new department are keen to get me on their system for the next pay cycle so want a transfer date of 01.10.22.

I feel had I been able to transfer ahead of maternity leave it would have been so much more straight forward, the fact my transfer date now falls when I’m on maternity leave just seems to be confusing everyone involved.

Yes your service started when you joined the civil service so you shouldn’t have to claim mat allowance. Your employment is continuous since then presuming it was a straight transfer with no break. Have you actually started in the new post yet? I’m not exactly sure how it would work with what rate of salary you’d get but like pp said be worth trawling the intranet to see what you can find on there. If you’re in the union I’d be tempted to contact them if you’re not getting anywhere. Why do these things need to be made so complicated!! Same thing happened to me (not mat pay related, just general transfer issues/delays). Just keep an eye that your pension service has carried over ok too.

Ahh, I get it. But you should still get the 6m full pay as you're still employed so shouldn't make a difference if you moved there before or during maternity. I guess just make sure they have all your bank details etc. Ime moving Departments is a complete pita so I don't envy you trying to do it while off.

I have a feeling that you maybe get paid at your old salary for mat pay as your entitlement to that is accrued whilst you are pregnant but I’m really not sure. For instance if you handed in your notice now you’d still be entitled to mat pay from your employer as you’ve accrued that right. I used to work in benefits (while back now right enough!) and you’d get a lot of people claiming mat allowance who got refused as they should’ve been getting paid by employer even though they’d left their job.

Thank you for the advice, reassurance and sympathies. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think about the union - I’ll contact our local rep tomorrow and see what they advise. It’s good to know this shouldn’t impact my continuous service - I didn’t think it should but this whole process has really made me doubt myself.

I think the less said about my line manager and the transfer process the better! I’ll be glad to know (regardless of maternity pay!) that I won’t be returning to that department.

I know you can't say as it could be outing and against the CS code (I wouldn't either) but I'm intrigued about which department this is. Mainly so I can avoid them. I'd also escalate how your manager dealt with it, but I appreciate that you have more important things to focus on.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy 😊

OP, your service is continuous so you will get SMP and OMP. The OMP should be paid at your current salary.

I would be really pushing to get the transfer done before you start mat leave, ideally so you do at least one working day with your new dept.

Neither payroll system will like paying part of your SMP and in fact it is very unlikely they have been configured to do this. The statutory requirement is your employer must pay all your SMP, even if you are made redundant.

What you need is for both Payroll Managers to be involved in the decision. They will know their systems and know a mid month move will be less complex than splitting SMP.