If I get pregnant while on maternity leave...

[Ginni]

My dd is 2 months, I'll be on maternity leave for at least 6 months and am wondering what the situation will be with work if I get pregnant before I go back. How will they work out my maternity pay (I currenty get 3 months full time pay 3 months half pay then SMP)?

Would you still go back to work in between or is that the plan so you don't have to go back?

It would depend on your company's maternity plan but funnily enough my colleague mentioned something about this the other day. I think you can run your maternity leaves back to back (without losing any accrued holiday leave - so you would stick it on the end of one and on the start of another all without setting foot in the office) and you would still be entitled to receive SMP for the usual duration, and pending if you have been there long enough, have up to a year off - the last 3 months would be unpaid though. You can only do this trick once though if you don't return to work before taking a second maternity leave.

I thought about doing this Ginni! Seemed to make sense...

I think it can be done but you need to check policy like simplysally says - at the least you should get mat allowance though. The maternity calculators online will help.

When it came to it though my body wasn't having it and I went back (to a different job) and rather embarassingly fell pg again almost immediately

Think you need to check as I know where I am you have to be backf or 3 months to get full mat benefits again

Just need to correct Sally. You are entitled to have maternity leaves back to back, but as SMP is worked out based on average earnings in a set period during your pregnancy, if you do that it is likely you won't get SMP.

SMP is based on average earnings between weeks 17 and 25 of your pregnancy, so you need to be back at work earning at that point.

If you have an enhanced scheme and get more than SMP, you will need to check the terms and conditions of the scheme to see if you will be eligible, and to see on what figure they base the enhancement. Many enhanced schemes are based on the person having to be eligible for SMP.

flowery - i was on matleave with ds1 between weeks 17 & 25 of my pregnancy with DS2 and i still qualified for SMP. i understood that it was on earnings so if your company mat pay is good (i'm in the NHS) you will get pay in these weeks giving you the required income for SMP for the next mat leave

Well yes, fled, that's obviously the case if you time it right and have generous pay arrangements, and it sounds as though you did well. However the OP says she gets 6 months of enhanced pay then is on SMP. She has a 2 mo DD and is not yet pregnant, so I think even assuming she started maternity leave the day her DD was born it's fairly safe to say that she won't be earning very much during the crucial time.

Yes, if she gets pregnant right now, the period for assessment will be in about 4 - 6 months time, so she may well be still on SMP, although only at basic rate. If that's the case, she may just about get enough to actually get her SMP the second time around, but the 90% for the first 6 weeks probably wouldn't be much if any above the basic rate, making it no better than Maternity Allowance.

As her DD is only 2 mo, I'm guessing when she talks about getting pregnant before she goes back, she is not intending to do it right now, although of course I may be wrong.