Some questions about being made redundant whilst on additional maternity leave and mortgage protection insurance

[LackaDAISYcal]

I work in the construction industry and have just received a letter from my employers stating that inspite of them doing their best to mitigate the current economic climate they have no option but to consider some small scale reduncies across the group.

I am 31 weeks into my period of maternity leave so in the additional pay leave period.

Now I know that they are legally obliged to offer me something else within the group, however it is unlikely that there is a role for me. I am not unduly concerned about this as I was undecided about whether to return to work anyway. We also have insurance in place that covers part of our mortgage in the case of redundancy so in some respects it would actually be of benefit.

The questions I have are re any reduncancy pay entitlements. I will have been with the company for four years in July.

Would statutory redundancy pay be based on my normal salary or the amount I receive in SMP?

What happens to SMP? I only have about eight weeks left anyway, so assume this would be paid as a lump?

Would I still get any holiday pay which has accrued during the course of the pay year?

I have also checked the insurance policy and can't see any provision in there for being made redundant on maternity leave. Might this be used as a reason for the insurance company to not pay out on the policy or is the fact that I have continued paying the premiums the relevant point here?

Also, it'e entirely possible that they may not select me due to the legal ramifications of making someone redundant whilst on maternity leave; how should i (or indeed should i at all?) approach my employer and let him know that I would be happy to take the redundancy and wouldn't contest not being offered alternative employment? Could this have an effect on the mortgage protection insurance, ie would they see it that i was offering myself up for voluntary redundancy and as such not pay out?

sorry, it's a bit long and convuluted.

bump

Statutory redundancy pay should be based on your normal salary, not the amount you are receiving as SMP.

You will get the rest of your SMP, which they can pay in a lump if they wish to.

You will get paid for any holiday accrued up to and including the day you are redundant.

It won't matter for the insurance policy whether you are on maternity leave while being made redundant or not. You are employed, and are made redundant, and they couldn't use the fact that you also happened to be on maternity leave as a reason not to pay out.

You should however check the terms of the policy to see how much you get. I don't know whether the pay out is based in any way on money you were earning over a recent period of time, for example, which might be affected by the fact that you have been on maternity leave purely in terms of your income.

You would also need to check the terms of the policy to see what happens in the event of voluntary redundancy. I very much doubt your employer would be willing to make you redundant on a voluntary basis when they didn't actually need to without putting in place a hefty compromise agreement and making it very clear in all the paperwork that it's voluntary.

So if you go to them and say you want redundancy, they will not frame it as compulsory to help you with your insurance as this would be too risky for them, given the extra protection you receive while on maternity leave.

Thanks flowery

The insurance just pays out a sum, there is something in there about maternity leave not making any difference and nothing about it being a percentage of the salary so i would still get that sum. The only proviso is that i need to be registered unemployed and available for work. It also says I would need to accept anything offered to me by my company as an alternative employment, but as I said before this would be unlikely.

My DH thought he might be able to talk to my boss, off the record, but I was wary of him doing that and from what you have said I was justified in that. The policy will not pay out if I accept any sort of voluntary redundancy package, so it looks like we just sit tight now and see what happens

thanks again [smmile]

Voluntary redundancy would invalidate the insurance policy, I dont know of any that cover voluntary redundancy.

Most policies have a clause that in order to pay out monthly you have to be actively seeking employment - they monitor this by checking that you are signing on via JSA.

thanks happymummy. I've had a good look at the policy and can ssee that now.

I spoke to a colleague earlier; the boss was at a meeting of directors on Friday in our London office so no doubt we will know more over the next few days.

Hi
Does anyone know of an insurnace policy for redundancy / mortgage protection that does not effect the payout amount given that earnings will be reduced while I'm on materntity leave? All I've looked at have a clause that sates the amount paid out is based on earnings over the last 12 months or so - on materntiy leave my earnings are significanty reduced so the policy would be worthless as I have more time off and then would take a year to build back up to my salaried amount.
Thanks for any advice.