Am I entitled to maternity leave? Please read

[hannah345]

Hey everyone. So I've done some Google searches and nothing comes up. Basically...

I accepted a job offer back in January this year, I'm STILL waiting for my dbs to clear as I'm going to be working with children. I have chased the nursery multiple times, every other week to be exact, as to when I'm starting and where my dbs is.

My question is.... I am 9 weeks pregnant, I haven't started work yet, when should I tell my boss I'm pregnant ? and would I be entitled to maternity pay even if hopefully I start work in the next month or two and only work 2/3 days a week?

I feel very rude starting a job pregnant and expecting to work for a few months and have maternity pay at the end, but am I entitled to it?

Oh I might add that I'll be on a "banks staff" which is zero hour contract. I just tell them when I can work?

You’ll probably be entered to MA but not SMP.

No you wont, you usually have to work for the company for months and then fall pregnant before you're entitled to maternity pay. You may be entitled to a one off maternity payment of around £500 i believe

You usually have to be employed one week prior to pregnancy for smp i think it is? and you're not employed currently, look up maternity allowance
the one off payment is the sure start grant. Not sure on entitlement, i think it's if you are claiming certain benefits

You will be entitled to maternity LEAVE, not pay though. You wouldn't get statutory maternity pay anyway on a zero hours contract, you need to apply for maternity allowance from the gov.uk website which is very similar.

I'm technically employed aren't I? I just haven't started due to my dbs taking ages?

It's very unlikely that you'll be considered employed until after your dbs comes through as your employment will be subject to that.

I wasn't formally employed by the nhs until I'd passed dbs checks so I doubt you're employed yet

If you haven't started then you're not employed, no.

You are entitled to maternity leave of up to a year. You may not get paid for all of it.

I started my job when I was 6 weeks pregnant and I only got MA which was paid for nine months. You have to tell them you are pregnant by a certain week, I think it's around week 25 maybe? I told my employer I was pregnant at the end of week 24, I had a very small bump.

I would wait until after 12 weeks before telling them unless you have bad morning sickness that will give it away or you need to tell them for safety reasons.

Have you signed a contract of employment with a start date on it? Are they paying you a salary while you wait? If not, you aren't currently employed by them.

That's a long time for a dbs to take, has it been chased up ? Sorry no advice on maternity pay

Thanks for the advice guys. Not sure if it's worth MA as I've just googled, they take it away from UC...

January! That's madness. There is no way it should take that long. I've lived a very complicated life. I've lived all over both here and out of the UK and my DBS when I came back to the Uk took two weeks. The renewals take less than a week.

Vetting checks of this kind are part of a conditional offer of employment ie the condition is you pass the vetting. Until then, i’m afraid you’re not employed by them, and will be only eligible for maternity allowance.

"DBS works with police forces and law enforcement agencies on a daily basis to ensure checks are completed as quickly as possible. If an application has been with a police force or law enforcement agency for more than 60 days, you can submit a request online to check if the application can be sped up, or you can call us on 03000 200 19090_.*
There are other instances where DBS checks may be delayed, such as missing, unclear or incorrect information. Any issues on an application form, such as missing or incorrect information will flag a ‘conflict’ and the application will come back to DBS to clarify the information by contacting the employer/RB or the applicant. This will inevitably increase the length of time the DBS check takes."

DBS even enhanced once shouldn't take more than 4 weeks - and that's with the organisation who want the check mucking around having admin issues.

I've had other background checks and the only time it took a long time was when one of my references hadn't replied.

So OP what you need to do is contact everyone you put down as a reference and check they have responded to the reference request.

I've asked the nursery multiple times have they heard anything, they have told me 3 times they have chased it, a few weeks ago they gave me a number to ring to chase it my self, I done that and they couldn't help me because I didn't have the reference number or to who the dbs was with etc etc. So I told the nursery this and they have said okay I'll chase it again.

Nearly 6 months now!

That's fine. I'll have a think about maternity allowance xx

6 months?? A DBS takes 2 weeks!!!
Are you sure they still want to employ you and aren't making excuses?

It says on .gov if you don't have the reference number then you should call

03000 200 190

The nursery should give you the reference number though.

They must be a really shit employer and they can't really need you if they aren't pushing after that amount of time. I'd ask them directly if they actually still want you... or just say you no longer accept. Imagine that will be the easiest thing to do financially and doesn't risk your UC.

I'd be wondering if this job is actually ever going to happen. they don't seem very proactive with getting you onboard. As others have said DBS takes 2-4 weeks. I have just sent off for one for a new job and when I applied it gave me reference number so are you sure you don't have an email with it on? you will only be eligible for maternity allowance if you have worked a certain number of weeks within a period of months - are you currently working?

Yes maternity allowance is paid separately to UC and then deducted in full so you are no better off by claiming it although I think it does credit you with a better class of national insurance contributions.