Pregnant while on maternity leave... Can someone please help clarify my rights?

[newmomma]

I'm confused...

I can see I need to have earned more than £95 per week during weeks 18-25 of my pregnancy.

My question is:

If this 7-week period falls during partly in the last period of Additional Maternity Leave and partly during a period of paid accrued holiday (after the end of my 52 week leave) - does the holiday pay I receive count towards the earnings required for this to apply?

I have just received a letter from my boss stating that he's not going to pay me any of the second maternity pay. It comes after a long drawn out argument, after him being 'dissatisfied' about my 2nd pregnancy.

His letter stated that the 'qualifying week' for calculating statutory maternity pay is the '15th week before the expected week of childbirth'. Which makes it seem like you have to have earned above the limit for this ONE week only - rather than the full 7 week period... I'm confused.

Can anyone help clarify please?

direct gov info

more detail here

Thanks.
I've read the rules...

I just don't understand if the issue is what I earned in that ONE week or whether its the period of 18-25 weeks.

Do I take an average over the period of 7 weeks or is it just the 15th week that counts?

As I said, I'm ...

Average weekly earnings over that period.

Your boss is being very foolish trying to deny you your maternity pay (which he can claim back from the government anyway...) and saying he is dissatisfied about your pregnancy. He is asking for a discrimination claim if he carries on that way.

That's what ACAS and Maternity Action have advised me...

But it seems that you need proof!! And I don't really have any...

And we can't necessarily afford a lawyer for all this either (especially now he won't be paying me any SMP!).

I could cry.

Refusal to pay maternity pay you are owed and putting in writing that he is dissatisfied by your pregnancy is proof though. More is better I agree, but those are fairly concrete facts.

He hasn't written that he's dissatisfied by my pregnancy.. That part was verbal.

He's being nasty over the phone and to my face and completely above board (and changing his story) in writing.

What I'm struggling with is whether the 7 week period they lok at for average earnings has to physically include the payments made, or if its enough that they relate to that period. (Accrued holiday pay).

I think the main problem I have is that my MATB1 form has the wrong due date on it (original one, since amended at scan). Not sure how I go about getting amended - guess I just need to speak to my midwife.

It's payments received during the period, if you look at EldonAve's more detailed link and scroll down to 'working out your average weekly earnings' it makes clear that it's what you actually get during the period that counts.

In fact looking at my directgov link it also says 'It is when you get paid the money that counts, not when it was actually earned.'

In terms of the evidence, you can and should make detailed notes of conversations and remarks made, with context and times. Burden of proof in an employment tribunal isn't like in a criminal court, it doesn't have to be 'beyond all reasonable doubt', it's more about the balance of probability, so if you have lots of very specific incidences even if they are not written, it can all contribute to an overal picture.

Thanks.

Have spoken to the Statutory Payments Dispute people (HMRC) and ascertained that the problem is down to the incorrect date on my MATB1 form.

Have had it amended to the correct date and then the calculations do work, thankfully. So I'm eligible.

SPD people explained I just need to write a letter to my boss with the amended form in it and ask him to make the back-dated payments. Which I'll do...

And then wait for his next 'spanner in the works' to be thrown. Whatever that may be.

I have noted down all our conversations etc and am not really sure what to do next. He's been so awful and strangely enough its been this last letter regarding not paying maternity pay that I've taken the hardest. Even though; based on the incorrect dates, he was in the right for a change.

I just can't bear to think of him - let alone be in the same room as him any more, so think a tribunal may be out of the question. Plus there is the issue of paying for a solicitor...

Thanks for all your advice (again!)