On mat leave at the moment and pregnant again

[helpneededplease]

I am on mat leave at the moment and due to return to work in May after 12 mths off. I am pregnant again and due at the beginning of Aug. My employers made my team redundant last year but left me alone because I was on mat leave.
I was thinking about asking for voluntary redundancy but wondered if I would be eligible for SMP? I stop getting SMP for dd2 this month and will not get any pay til May.
Any ideas?

Try posting in employment issues - it's a busier board so more likely to get a good response

Depending on your dates you may be able to go straight onto maternity leave when you return (earliest is 15 weeks before due date) and they can't make you redundant if there is another suitable role in the company if you are on maternity leave.

You also accrue holiday whilst on mat leave which your employer should pay you for if you can't take - which should be a nice lump sum of 5/6 weeks pay or maybe 2 payments depending on when your company's year runs for holiday entitlement.

And if you took redundancy you could still get maternity allowance which is paid at same rate as SMP but without the enhanced bit for the first 6 weeks. It is also not taxable unlike SMP.

HTH

Gosh, you're up early!! I didn't know whether or not I would still get maternity allowance as I would not be earning anything feb, mar and apr. I have been employed for the required number of weeks out of 66 but it was the 12 weeks of no pay I was confused about. I think I will wait and see what they say when I tell them I'm pregnant, there might be other options I'm not thinking about!

Thank you for the advice.

More info on maternity allowance here but you need Flowery or Ribena really.

Just a thought but if your whole department went except you have they already moved you to another role as per the extra protection for women on mat leave? Seems odd to just leave you out of the redundancy if everyone else went. You do have a little bit of extra protection from redundancy whilst on mat leave but they can still make you redundant if no suitable job is available.

I have a teething 9mo... so I hadn't been to bed yet at 4am