Unpaid leave..... Will it affect future maternity pay/leave?

[squidler]

I am taking several months of unpaid leave from my job of 2 years due to family circumstances. My employer has been wonderful about this and have even offered to change hours/working arrangements on my return if I wish.

However.... I am planning on extending my family next year and am a little worried that I will have messed up my entitlement to maternity pay. I think I will be fine for the 'leave' aspect, but does anyone have any idea if I am still under contract, taking upaid leave - whether that qualifies as 'working for..' ??

It will have an impact on when we begin TTC. If the upaid time period means I have to restart the 66 weeks thing, then we might have to do some rethinking. Plus they have been so great to me I dont want to mess them about. I love my job!

Any ideas?

What 66 weeks thing? Is that a company rule you are referring to?

Time on unpaid leave is still employment, so you will still have the normal entitlements to statutory maternity leave.

In terms of pay, your entitlement to contractual/company maternity pay will be governed by the terms of the company policy- it may count time on unpaid leave, it may not. It would be quite rare for unpaid leave to restart the qualifying period for company maternity leave, but it may well not count towards service (i.e. put your service on 'pause', so that no more accrues for the purposes of the policy whilst you are off).

For statutory maternity pay, this is calculated from a period in your second trimester, so providing you are working when actually pregnant, your SMP should not be impacted (can give you the exact dates if you need them).

HTH

That does help RibenaBerry. The 66 weeks is something I read about having to work for an employer for 66 weeks up to and including the due date to qualify for SMP??

Was concerned as I wont be 'working' but I am curious whether they will not or will not include my unpaid time in the 66 week qualifying period/

Am now confusing myself...!

The 66 week thing is for Maternity Allowance if you are not entitled to SMP. To be entitled to SMP you need to have been working for the employer for 26 weeks leading into the 15th week before your due date, (in other words basically you can't be pregnant before you start work), and must earn enough during the qualifying period, which is weeks 17 - 25 of pregnancy.

So if you're not earning during those weeks, or not earning enough, you won't be entitled to SMP. What the rules are for any pay over and above SMP depends on your employer.

The 66 week thing for Maternity Allowance is that you must have been employed for 26 weeks at some point during the 66 week period leading up to your due date to qualify. See here overview of SMP and MA.

Thanks flowerybeanbag. (I used to have one of those )

This is the part i found - qualifying factors include... "Employed by the same employer continuously (some breaks do not interrupt continuity)"

I suppose I need to find out what 'some breaks' means. I have calculated that if I want to receive SMP and that they ARE going to count my break as a break in continuity, I need to aim to TTC no earlier than Dec 09 (based on my calculations knowing that I will return to paid hours in October). That means I will have been back at work for at least 26 weeks before 1 April 2010 (15 or so weeks after begining of Dec 09).

Does that sound right?

My dog sleeps on mine!

Have a read here, technical guidance on SMP, section on Eligibility - it talks about the service condition and what kind of breaks do and don't count for the purposes of SMP.

In terms of your calculations, if it is a break, you just need to not be pregnant by the time you start again. It's 26 weeks employment by the 15th week before your due date, which is 25 weeks pregnant.

Ah ok - I was doing the calculations backwards

Thanks for the technical bits - now I can talk to my employer to find out if I will be regarded as in continuous employment during my leave period, without sounding like I am about to tag SMP on the end of it....

My organisation has a career break/unpaid leave policy which states that service does not accrue during a period of unpaid leave but in effect time stands still. So if you had 5 years service when you started the period of unpaid leave, when you return it would still be 5 years. Does that help? Obviously it will depend on how your place sees it.

Waves at Flowerybeanbag. Hi Flowery. Have been off on the AN and now PN threads for last 9 months. Haven't posted on main boards really. Now come back. And just wanted to wave a hello.

Hi Oblomov, thought I hadn't seen you for a while. How are things going?