FloweryBeanBag or anyone who knows about Maternity matters- please help URGENT

[TotallyAndUtterlyPaninied]

Posting this in Employment and Legal Matters as people on AIBU have suggested.

I'm in quite a tizzy.

I'm an hourly paid lecturer. I don't get paid for the summer holidays. I'm pregnant, due 24th Feb and my qualifying week was 14th November.

My employers have taken into consideration the two pay packets before- September's (which was £0) as I didn't work the summer hols. And October's pay which was £1500 (from the work I did in September). However, I also got my Golden Hello of £2000 in my October pay packet. They have not included this as a 'bonus'. It is described on direct.gov.uk as a 'one off taxable bonus'.

If they include this, I will get over £300 a week for the first 6 weeks, and will then get SMP plus 50% (from the college) for 12 weeks, then SMP on it's own. I could live on this quite easily.

However, if they refuse to include the Golden Hello as a 'bonus', I will only get just over £100 a week for 6 weeks and then SMP alone for the remaining weeks. This would mean I'll have to work until I go into labour, then return to work after 2 weeks or I won't manage the mortgage. I really don't want to do this.

Where do I stand with this?

Get your union involved or speak to the CAB. Do it soon! Doesn't sound right to me.

Union are currently looking into it but they said I need to give HR longer to reply, where as I want to know right now as obviously it's a huge issue and I need to reevaluate everything if I'm returning to work 2 weeks after the birth.

I'm by no means an expert on employment law like others on here are, but have a look at this - www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/employee_pregnant.htm#33 - according to HMRC, "average weekly earnings" should include "All earnings paid in the period, including money earned outside the period, such as holiday pay, overtime, bonuses and any lump sum paid for arrears of pay." If your payment was a bonus it sounds like they should be including it.

HMRC is the authority which decides on payment of SMP payments (as it refunds what your employer pays you) so ultimately it is their decision as to what should be included. If you disagree with your employers calculation you can ask HMRC to make a formal decision. Maybe the best place to start might be your tax office (details will be on your payslips) or call HMRC direct, I've always found them really helpful when I've spoken to them in the past. See what they say and if they indicate that the bonus payment should be included that may be enough to convince your employer to do so. (If it helps there is a dedicated helpline for employers to use for queries about SMP so your employer can call that themselves.)

Yes, it should get counted.

When you say that the Union say you should give HR longer to reply, when did you raise this issue with them? To be honest, the rules on this are not well known, so a week or two to look into it and answer you would not be unreasonable...

When I got SMP with dd2 the bonus element of my wages that I'd earnt in the qualifying weeks was certainly included in the calculation. Worked out great for me as just as I went on ML that element of our pay was withdrawn so I was actually earning more on ML than the poor souls still at work! So I agree with everybody else and it should be included. I think for your own peace of mind though you should start to plan for the less desirable situation. The big thing that jumps out at me is could you put your mortgage on to interest only to cut your outgoings whilst you were off?

along the same lines of thought as northern, are you in any position to over-pay on the mortgage, even a small amount, to 'buy' yourself time off after your baby's birth?

I can't offer anything further than the others have said on the mat pay / bonus issue, but imho everything that you earn in that period does get counted. The [bad] thing is, employers will look to the best/easiest option for themselves, not you. Remember your rights, and stick with challenging their version if you think - as many of us do too - that they're wrong. Good luck!

This all sounds very positive making me feel better anyway. Not in a position to pay any more off mortgage as it's over 90% due to drop in house prices and we have a lot of debt from DH's previous relationship which we're working through- then the usual loans, credit cards, insurances, etc and pay £160 a month on gas and electric!!

So bit of a crappy position really but good to know they'll probably have to count the Golden Hello.

Ribena- I've only run into it all this week so I need to give him until next Wednesday, then they'll phone and see what's going on and 'begin negotiations'.

Great- but don't let them make you think it's a negotiation. Point them in the direction of HMRC and bingo!

I've quoted HMRC and direct.gov in my e-mail to HR so that at least backs me up a little.

Good luck. Hope it goes well.

It's not a 'negotiable' - it should be included (I made sure of this when I was in a similar position), and they shouldn't actually care - do they realise that almost all the maternity pay is reimbursed to them so it won't actually cost them much at all?

from memory - and it looks like a lot have checked on here - it's their bad luck and your good fortune that they paid a bonus in the qualifying weeks. And of course they get most of it back.

Good news- they're accepting it as a bonus and are recalculating for me Thanks guys, so happy

Oh great - well done!

Oh I'm glad to see that

Great!

You should maybe see a Money Adviser about working out your income/expenditure during mat leave. If your income's very low there are other benefits you can claim and ways to reduce other payments (eg debts, utilities, ctax) temporarily until you're back at work.
Just make sure you pay the mortgage even if it means skipping payments on other bills.