Explanation of maternity pay

[Marriedlaydee]

Hi all

I'm trying to understand maternity pay but am really struggling to work out how much I'll get! I'd like to leave as late as possible then I'll have about 5 or 6 weeks holiday to take then my maternity leave would start.

So how many weeks do I get?? I think I read on my employers website that i would get 100% paid for 6 weeks due to my length of service? So after this time...what do I get? 6 weeks isn't a lot and I'm worrying that the income will be so low I'll have to go back to work when the baby is maybe 5 months old. I'd love to take 10 months off...but I read £138 a week for 33 weeks after those 6 weeks and that sounds insane when I take home the equivalent to about £270 a week

Any clarity or advice on dealing with the low pay while not at work is appreciated!

I'm thinking way in advance but that's cos I like to consider everything and not panic later when the realisation hits!

 

[SonnyH]

The statutory minimum employers have to offer in the UK is:

> 6 weeks @ 90% of pay
> Then up to 9 months at statutory pay (minus the 6 weeks) which as you say is about £130ish a week

Your employer can supplement this. It sounds like your employer gives 100% pay for the first 6 weeks instead of 90%. But by the sounds of it, that is all you'd get I'm afraid! Your employer should have a comprehensive policy explaining this. There are also some good government websites which discuss the law & maternity leave if you Google.

Also, your maternity leave has to start the week of your due date. It can't start any later. So if you have annual leave to use up, you'll need to take that in the weeks before your due date. You can't use annual leave once your baby has been born!

I did just that, I had 5 weeks of annual leave to use, so I had the whole of April & the first week of May as annual leave while preggo! My materniry leave then started on Monday 8th May as my due date was 11th. Baby was late and arrived on 17th but that sadly doesn't make a difference. Maternity leave is all worked out based on your due date!

Hope that helps a bit!

 

[Marriedlaydee]

Ahhh thank you! I could have swore I knew people who used their holiday entitlement after their maternity leave aswell but perhaps you're right but I will ask once I'm 12 weeks and ready to tell HR. Such a shame if I can't use it before I go back to work as at this rate I'll be back at work when baby is 3 months which would be horrible. I have discussed it with DH and if we cut back even more then we could probably get by with me on maternity leave for a few months before we feel the pinch lol. I don't know how anyone deals with childcare, money, being at work and wanting to be at home! Next year will be certainly a whole different ball game to get used to!

All I know is I'd want to be with the baby as much as possible...it seems to me that things need to change so that mums or dads can have full pay...at least for the first 6 months! We can dream eh!

Wow

 

[SonnyH]

I'm lucky, my employer top up my maternity to 6 months full pay, which makes life a lot more comfortable! I think 6 weeks is terrible. But then again, in the US, they get pretty much nothing at all. They go back to work after a couple weeks!

If you can, get saving. My OH and and I have saved up enough to cover my half of the bills for the 6 months after my full pay stops. So thats taken away a lot of financial worry. We had to cut back a lot on going out etc to save but it's worth it now as it's allowing me to take a full year off. Given the little amount of sleep I'm currently getting with a new baby, I'm very grateful to not have to work! I'd be terrible at my job!

 

[Marriedlaydee]

I'm lucky, my employer top up my maternity to 6 months full pay, which makes life a lot more comfortable! I think 6 weeks is terrible. But then again, in the US, they get pretty much nothing at all. They go back to work after a couple weeks!

If you can, get saving. My OH and and I have saved up enough to cover my half of the bills for the 6 months after my full pay stops. So thats taken away a lot of financial worry. We had to cut back a lot on going out etc to save but it's worth it now as it's allowing me to take a full year off. Given the little amount of sleep I'm currently getting with a new baby, I'm very grateful to not have to work! I'd be terrible at my job!

Thanks so much for the advise. I have been working a fair bit of overtime to clear my credit card so it's unfortunate that I can't save a whole lot. But now I'm realising how lucky I am that my car finance is up last month so I'll save £100 a month from that, then also our mortgage payments will lessen by £150 when we switch next month. I think it's still going to be a struggle I need to try clear that card as much as I can now and then rely on DH to save his money to help me out.

Typical that we start this worry now and not think about it before. I think this year we just need to look at what we spend going out and cut it out lol. Worth it in the end like you said! I'm not predicting just how tiring it's going to be and how emotional it'll be to go back full time to early....i really wouldn't want to go back before 6 months but a year off sounds perfect.

Then I know you can get free childcare when they turn two aswell for some hours a week. Hopefully my mum can help out but we don't want to rely heavily on anyone for a whole day of childcare or too many of their days being interrupted!

It sounds so hard to juggle! I never realised I feel a bit naive right now for thinking it's all fine and works itself out.

 

[IchigoMewMew]

Save as much as you can, smp is really low when you're used to earning a reasonable wage! you mentioned about people taking leave before returning to work, with my employer that's fine but it comes after the end of the maternity leave and as others have said, before your due date. The best thing to do is confirm with your employer as some don't like carrying leave into the next year

 

[Marriedlaydee]

Luckily for me my leave runs from September to August so I really didn't want to take holiday before as if I leave week before Christmas I'll be 34 weeks. If they don't let me take it after the maternity leave then I guess I'll take 2 weeks and leave at 32 weeks along! I'll then have 4 weeks to use up before the end of August 2018. I know my friend at work is currently on maternity leave and back next year so I wonder that happened to her new 6 week allowance after September 2017. I think I'll check this all out when I'm ready to share the news in July!