Maternity policy

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Hello!

Can someone please help me understand how long do I need to work at my current company to be entitled to enhanced pay before I get pregnant ?

To qualify for enhanced company maternity pay, you must have worked for the Company for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks ending with the qualifying week i.e. the week immediately before the 14th week before the EWC.

Thank you!

EWC means expected week of childbirth. So you need to have been working for the company for 26 weeks when you hit 14 weeks to your due date - so by the time you are 26 weeks pregnant.

Yep this is correct, my employer is the same

Most employers have this policy so that you don't start a job pregnant for the enhanced mat pay.

As long as you weren’t pregnant when you started the job you will qualify.

You can get pregnant as soon as you start, but remember pregnancy is dated back to your last period so I'd probably leave it a month to be sure. If you're lucky enough for it to happen that fast!

My advice, Retired HR, was to start job then after first period start trying. That way you know you will be eligible.

Thank you very much for your responses. I started the job on 10th of July 2024 and the due date is 14th of April 2025. Does this mean I am not eligible because I started on a Wednesday so it wouldn’t count as a full week?

Your employer looks to be using the same eligibility for their OMP as is defined for SMP.

Use this calculator which determines if you're entitled to SMP.

www.gov.uk/maternity-paternity-pay-leave

Thank you! According to this calculator I am eligible for SMP as I needed to be employed by 13th of July (which I was since I started on the 10th of July).