Should I stay or should I go?

[andpeggy1]

So have just found out that I will be made redundant from my job, after 9 and half years of service. My last working day will be 30th of October.

Im also currently 7 weeks pregnant ( not announced yet).

Both events in my life have come as incredible shocks. And I'm now fearing what to do work wise. Do I start frantically looking for a new role now? Or do I just leave it til October, get redundancy and have no paid mat leave?

I have a partner to help support me but it's going to be tight money wise either way

how much redundancy are you getting? Leaving before the end could effect that.

and remember maternity relies on being somewhere at a certain point in pregnancy which I don’t think you can achieve.

I would stay whilst looking at options

So I will only get statutory and that works out to £5.7k so that's just over 2 months worth of net pay. So it's probably not worth my time is it?

Is a £5.7k lump sum sufficient to see you through some mat leave though?

I’m sure you will qualify for maternity allowance due to being employed at the moment. It’s the same pay as statutory maternity leave bar the 90% pay for the first six weeks. It depends on if you get an enhanced pay or not. Mat pay is calculated on qualifying weeks which are around 15-26 weeks pregnancy so if you could get somewhere else by 15 weeks then you’d get mat pay with new employer although probably wouldn’t qualify for any enhanced pay. To be fair I think you’d be best off staying where you are?

Getting a job and through notice though for 26 weeks is unlikely. Stat Maternity pay would be less than the redundancy (or fairly similar).

I would get some ideas look and figure out what is there and how to claim maternity sllowance

You'll qualify for maternity allowance, which will be paid at £172.48 per week. so that on top of you redundancy payout (which is tax free) plus any annual leave you'd be owed by then, I'd stay and use the maternity leave to look for another job.

If you start another job while already pregnant you wouldn't qualify for SMP with them and would need to claim Maternity allowance anyway

You'd likely not be able to get maternity pay at a new job anyways as you need to work for a company for ex amount of time. You might be entitled to maternity allowance.

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/redundancy-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/#:~:text=You%20can%20be%20made%20redundant,pay%20and%2For%20notice%20pay.

How many weeks will you be in October? I have copied a link from above about SMP.

I always though that the company hd to still pay your SMP if they make you redundant after week 25.