Fixed Term contract - who pays what (if anything) with regard to MA/SMP

[MildWest]

Have just accepted a fixed term contract and contemplating TTC (have posted in 'Going Back to Work' on the moral viewpoint of that).

It's a 6 month contract. If I fall PG whilst working the contract, but the contract would end whilst still PG, would I be entitled to any SMP or Maternity Allowance? I know if you start a job whilst PG, you get Maternity Allowance rather than SMP, but not sure what happens if your contract was to expire before the due date.

Any experts out there? Thanks in advance.

To get SMP you need to be still employed by the time you are 25 weeks pg, so if you are not pregnant yet and the contract is only 6 months, you won't be still employed at that point and won't be entitled to SMP.

Great, thanks, that makes sense. I wonder if the same criteria applies to MA, which you would be entitled to if you were PG at the time of taking employment (ie. still to be employed at 25 weeks).

Hmm. So if I were to get PG, perhaps some way into the contract, I'm not likely to get an extension as that would mean the employer having to pay SMP.

You don't need to be employed to get MA, no. To get MA you need to have worked for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before your due date - in other words during the 9 months of your pregnancy and the 6 months before that, you need to have worked a total of 6 months.

If you would otherwise definitely get a contract extension and don't because you are pregnant, that's discrimination. Your employer won't have to pay much for SMP anyway. If they are a small employer they get something like 104% of the cost of SMP back, if they are bigger they get 90% or something.

Hi Flowery, thanks for your response. It's so much easier to think in terms of months than weeks!

That's good news about the MA criteria, as even if it takes a little while to get PG, I am guaranteed 6 months work (barring illness I guess).

I wonder how easy it is to prove that you would definitely have got an extension though.

All hypothetical at the moment, but it's really helpful to know where I would stand