Will my wife qualify for SMP with her August due date?

[dadkiki]

MATERNITY PAY RELATED QUESTION (TO BE PARENTS)

Hi all, can someone review the below and tell me if everything will be ok?

Baby due 31st August 2026

My wife started a new job on 12th of March, 26 weeks lands on 10th September which would be 1 week and 3 days under the 26 week continuous employment.

15 weeks qualifying week before due date lands on 18th May which is ok I think.

Now if her work is nice enough im sure they can sort something out, but if they can't as it's not within their power but the Government then that's a shame.

Now then if baby is delayed by 10 days then that would be fine, however I realised upon reading online she can take 8 days annual leave which counts towards the 26 weeks continuous work even including sick days. (This will vary depending if our baby arrives any day after the 31st August). Reducing down the 8 days needed.

If baby arrives earlier then I think she cannot get SMP from work.

All in all I just want to know will she be ok for SMP or it's a tricky one?

Thank you all.

I work in HR and can honestly say I don’t understand why you are asking anyone: your wife should be asking her own HR department. And if she doesn’t understand she should ask for clarification.

I'm sorry, it doesn't sound like she would qualify - she has to have worked for 26 weeks by the qualifying week, which she won't have done.

She may be able to claim maternity allowance instead.

Because other may have been in a similar spot, and if you work in HR then you would easily of said no she doesn't qualify for SMP as Government has last say on the 26 weeks or work can over ride it and can sort it.

She will be able to claim maternity allowance which is the same as statutory maternity pay. She could ask her work nicely if they would pay the enhanced part voluntarily.

She won’t qualify for SMP, her employer cannot over ride the government legislation. She can claim maternity allowance.

Let say she gets induced and takes several days until baby arrives, everything goes well but past the initial due date leading to September 10th (26 weeks) she then would get it? During this time she would just WFH.

Kind regard,

No. She won't qualify because she needs to have been employed for 26 weeks by the qualifying week, not 26 weeks before the birth.

I'm pretty sure you have to have been working somewhere for 26 weeks by the qualifying week, not by the due date unfortunately. So no she won't qualify for SMP, it will be maternity allowance only.

Basically the timeline effectively means you have to be working somewhere when you get pregnant to qualify. Joining a company at any time after that will not qualify as you would not have been there 26 weeks by the 'qualifying week', which is 25 weeks pregnant (15 weeks before due date).

Its based off the original estimated due date given on the MATB1, so even if baby is late she wouldn't qualify for smp but she will get maternity allowance.

Employer could be nice and at their discretion enhance the first 6 weeks pay to follow SMP, I did this in 2 borderline cases just because I thought it was a nice thing to do as they just missed out 😊

No she won’t qualify for maternity pay from her employer

The qualifying week for Statutory Maternity Pay is the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. To qualify, you must be employed by your employer during this week and have at least 26 weeks of continuous employment by the end of it, earning at least £125/week

If your wifes labour is induced, and it takes a few days for baby to be born, regardless of whether it qualifies her for SMP she definitely will NOT want to be working from home during that time!

Thank you very much everyone, think this answers everything for us. I got be confused with the qualifying week to the 26 weeks but it's all clear now.

Thanks all,

She should get maternity allowance if she doesn’t qualify for SMP.