Help regarding Maternity pay

[Becci_Boo86]

Hi all i'm writing this for help for my bro and sis inlaw.

my sis inlaw was working fulltime before she had baby and was getting over £1000 a month.

today she was paid and it was only around £500. they said that she only gets full maternity pay for the first 6 weeks. is this correct?

please help cos my brother is really stressed out thanks Becci x

 

[x Michelle x]

first 6 weeks you get 90% of your wages, then 33 weeks @ about £128
I would have a look on here: https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyT...ort/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018741
Even if her company does not pay additional mat pay, what i have stated is the minimum she will get by law if she meets the requirements.
Hope that helps.

 

[JLB]

Thats what I got, 90% of pay for 6 weeks then smp (about £500 a month) for the rest.

 

[MumToOllie]

It all depends on the company's policy, I get 11 weeks @90%, then 13 weeks@50%, then I'm having 3 months@£570 month statutory mat pay, which i think is fairly good. She should have found this out in advance though so I'm not sure why it's a shock to your brother?

 

[little_lady]

What you said sounds correct, it's what I get. To be honest she should have been told / looked this up before she had the baby!

 

[Mrshoffie]

first 6 weeks you get 90% of your wages, then 33 weeks @ about £128
I would have a look on here: https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyT...ort/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018741
Even if her company does not pay additional mat pay, what i have stated is the minimum she will get by law if she meets the requirements.
Hope that helps.

Most company's only pay the statutory minimum which is stated above

 

[Becci_Boo86]

well my brother thought she got 100% maternity. my brother cant work fulltime hours as he had a motorcycle accident. i really dont think they have looked into any information if i'm honest. i think they just wanted a baby so much and didnt think that! i will let them know. xx

 

[Snuffy]

As others have said, it depends on the company's policy but if she's only entitled to the statutory minimum that sounds right.

Her HR department should have written to her stating this or at the very least had their maternity policy available for her to look up.

Mine is on the firm's intranet, was also confirmed to me after I submitted my MAT B1 and if the procedure is the same as when I had DD, they will write to me again before I go on maternity leave setting out exactly how much I will be receiving for each stage of my entitlement (for me 6 weeks full pay, 23 weeks half pay and the rest SMP).

 

[tinki87]

I did look in to maternaty pay before hand but my boss did not know what she was talking about she told me that for the first 3 months i would be paid 80% of wage then after that it would go to statuary which was around £500 and my husband and myself just went by what my manager had told me, but phoned her the other day it its changed.

 

[hb1]

also, your brother can take some of her allotted time so if financially they're better off on her wage I think after 20 weeks they can swap and he would be entitled to whatever remaining smp was left - check out the direct gov websites re paternity leave

 

[supertabby]

As the others have said that is correct for statutory maternity pay. Some companies offer more (which they pay privately not government benefits) but tbh those companies are very rare - and those that do offer it will usually write into the contract that you must return to work for them for at least 6 or 12 months etc or pay back the money.

If she is the main breadwinner maybe she could go back to work at 20 weeks and your brother could stay at home and claim the remainder of the maternity pay. Some friends of mine are doing this, the dad can only do half the maternity period though so max 20 weeks with maternity pay.

No offence but how did they get this far without checking how much maternity pay was?

 

[Kelly81]

^^^What everyone else said about SMP, just thought I'd add that if it's a five week month (five mondays in the month) she'll get around £640 as it's a weekly payment. Mmmm I do like a five week month these days!

 

[Becci_Boo86]

my brother wants to do that and take some time as then she can go back to work but my sis inlaw and her parents want her to stay at home. so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i just want them to be happy and not stress about money cos its not helping things xxx

 

[ellismum]

They will also get Child Benefit and most likely Tax Credits so that's certainly an avenue to explore.

 

[x Michelle x]

my brother wants to do that and take some time as then she can go back to work but my sis inlaw and her parents want her to stay at home. so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i just want them to be happy and not stress about money cos its not helping things xxx

Well unless her parents are going to subsidise her wages then she may end up back at work.......
They need to make a proper plan and stick to it. Lots of mums would like to be SAHMs but just can't afford to. I'm a SAHM but money is pretty tight and we wont have a holiday for years but we budget well and stick to it
Thats our choice tho and i would never criticise anyone who did go back for a bit more money and luxuries for the whole family.
I hope they can work something out that everyone is happy with

 

[stardust599]

my brother wants to do that and take some time as then she can go back to work but my sis inlaw and her parents want her to stay at home. so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i just want them to be happy and not stress about money cos its not helping things xxx

Well unless her parents are going to subsidise her wages then she may end up back at work.......
They need to make a proper plan and stick to it. Lots of mums would like to be SAHMs but just can't afford to. I'm a SAHM but money is pretty tight and we wont have a holiday for years but we budget well and stick to it
Thats our choice tho and i would never criticise anyone who did go back for a bit more money and luxuries for the whole family.
I hope they can work something out that everyone is happy with

Totally disagree. I would have promptly whacked anyone who told me I HAD to go back to work. It sounds like she doesn't want to go back because she wants to be at home with her baby and quite rightly her parents are backing her up. I think it would be awful to force a mother to be separated from baby when not ready! They will have to work something else out.

I took the last 3 months unpaid even though we didn't have a penny to our names and ran up 2.5k worth of debt in that time. OH wasn't happy and neither was his family but I don't care, it was much more important for me to spend over a year home with my LO. I always had plans to go back when LO was 4months old but when reality hit I just couldn't do it.

 

[x Michelle x]

my brother wants to do that and take some time as then she can go back to work but my sis inlaw and her parents want her to stay at home. so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i just want them to be happy and not stress about money cos its not helping things xxx

Well unless her parents are going to subsidise her wages then she may end up back at work.......
They need to make a proper plan and stick to it. Lots of mums would like to be SAHMs but just can't afford to. I'm a SAHM but money is pretty tight and we wont have a holiday for years but we budget well and stick to it
Thats our choice tho and i would never criticise anyone who did go back for a bit more money and luxuries for the whole family.
I hope they can work something out that everyone is happy with

Totally disagree. I would have promptly whacked anyone who told me I HAD to go back to work. It sounds like she doesn't want to go back because she wants to be at home with her baby and quite rightly her parents are backing her up. I think it would be awful to force a mother to be separated from baby when not ready! They will have to work something else out.

I took the last 3 months unpaid even though we didn't have a penny to our names and ran up 2.5k worth of debt in that time. OH wasn't happy and neither was his family but I don't care, it was much more important for me to spend over a year home with my LO. I always had plans to go back when LO was 4months old but when reality hit I just couldn't do it.

Sorry hun, i didn't mean she should HAVE to go back to work, i meant more that they need to figure something out.. i think i just worded it wrong if that makes sense. I understand exactly where you are coming from about not going back, as i've said things are tight in this house, esp with another on the way but there was no way i was going back either and i certainly wont be once LO number 2 is here

 

[stardust599]

my brother wants to do that and take some time as then she can go back to work but my sis inlaw and her parents want her to stay at home. so i'm not sure what they are going to do. i just want them to be happy and not stress about money cos its not helping things xxx

Well unless her parents are going to subsidise her wages then she may end up back at work.......
They need to make a proper plan and stick to it. Lots of mums would like to be SAHMs but just can't afford to. I'm a SAHM but money is pretty tight and we wont have a holiday for years but we budget well and stick to it
Thats our choice tho and i would never criticise anyone who did go back for a bit more money and luxuries for the whole family.
I hope they can work something out that everyone is happy with

Totally disagree. I would have promptly whacked anyone who told me I HAD to go back to work. It sounds like she doesn't want to go back because she wants to be at home with her baby and quite rightly her parents are backing her up. I think it would be awful to force a mother to be separated from baby when not ready! They will have to work something else out.

I took the last 3 months unpaid even though we didn't have a penny to our names and ran up 2.5k worth of debt in that time. OH wasn't happy and neither was his family but I don't care, it was much more important for me to spend over a year home with my LO. I always had plans to go back when LO was 4months old but when reality hit I just couldn't do it.

Sorry hun, i didn't mean she should HAVE to go back to work, i meant more that they need to figure something out.. i think i just worded it wrong if that makes sense. I understand exactly where you are coming from about not going back, as i've said things are tight in this house, esp with another on the way but there was no way i was going back either and i certainly wont be once LO number 2 is here

Ha, it does sound like you are saying she needs to get her backside back to work but reading it again I get what you mean now!

We are NTNP no 2 and I won't be going back after number 2 either xx

 

[tinki87]

I did look in to maternaty pay before hand but my boss did not know what she was talking about she told me that for the first 3 months i would be paid 80% of wage then after that it would go to statuary which was around £500 and my husband and myself just went by what my manager had told me, but phoned her the other day it its changed.

this whole thing is about my husband and myself. Reading through some things that have been said has upset me abit because we did plan the maternaty how long i was going to take and plan things regarding our money but as i said in last post every thing my manager and i planed has not happened as the company has changed its maternity policy but i was not written to with regards to the changes.

But at the end of the day money is just money as long as we have enough to pay the bills which we will have.

 

[xxembobxx]

this whole thing is about my husband and myself. Reading through some things that have been said has upset me abit because we did plan the maternaty how long i was going to take and plan things regarding our money but as i said in last post every thing my manager and i planed has not happened as the company has changed its maternity policy but i was not written to with regards to the changes..

Do you have a copy of the original maternity policy? If you have anything in writing from your work regarding SMP then that is what you should receive.
If they have changed anything in their terms an employer has a duty to inform you of this change.