Made Redundant @ 11 weeks pregnant

debeast

Hi there,

Am looking for any help on what to do and where to go .
My wife has been with a company 7 years and her entire department is being closed down as her company has merged with another one

However she is 11 weeks pregnant.

So we are now not going to get any maternity leave
and
we are now going to be financially screwed unless anyone can suggest a way forward for us :O(

spent years getting out of debt , balancing credit cards , stoozing and joining this site many years ago and now its seems it was all for nothing.

Any help appreciated?

lwcus78

Congratulations on you pregnancy.
She will still be entitled to maternity allowance. I'm sure someone else will be along in a minute to offer more advice.
xx

pebbles88

Hi,

congrats on the pregnancy!

will she not be getting any redundancy pay??

she will certainly be entitled to Maternity Allowance as mentioned so at least thats something.

im sure someone who knows more will be along soon

pinkshoes

Can she not get another job? If she's only 11 weeks, then she can get another job and work for another 15 weeks to get SMP I think. She won't have to tell them she's pregnant until so many weeks before the due date!

debeast

Hi thanks for the replys
Yes thanks she will be getting redundancy pay but we were counting on having a job to go back to.
Apparently kids are expensive little things

What is maternity allowance?

thanks

/db

pebbles88

Hi,

i tried pasting a link butit didnt work!

if you google maternity allowance you will find all the info.
HTH

JimmyTheWig

pinkshoes wrote: »

Can she not get another job? If she's only 11 weeks, then she can get another job and work for another 15 weeks to get SMP I think. She won't have to tell them she's pregnant until so many weeks before the due date!

This won't work.
You are right that she can get another job and doesn't have to tell the new employer that she is pregnant.
And, I believe, they are not allowed to ask if she is pregnant during the interview.

But she won't be able to claim SMP.
SMP is only available if you have been working for the employer from before you got pregnant. Working for different employers doesn't count.

Which leaves MA...

debeast wrote: »

What is maternity allowance?

Maternity Allowance is for working women who, for one reason or another, don't quality for SMP.
My wife is currently claiming it (for the third time) as she is self employed.

You can only claim MA if you don't qualify for SMP.
To quality for MA you have to have been working during 26 weeks in the last 66 weeks before your baby is due. Your wife will easily meet this.
You also need to be earning an average of at least £30 a week for those 26 weeks. From what you've said I'll assume this is the case.

You can get MA for up to 9 months (used to be 6).
The rate is the LOWER of 90% of average earnings or something like £117 a week.
From what you've said she was earning a decent wage, so this will be less than she would have got with SMP.
But at least it's something.

G-G_4

Can she get a job in another department at all?

I hope you get it sorted, what a shock!

JimmyTheWig

G-G wrote: »

Can she get a job in another department at all?

Presumably not, that's one of the conditions of redundancy.

foreversomeday

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

The rate is the LOWER of 90% of average earnings or something like £117 a week.
From what you've said she was earning a decent wage, so this will be less than she would have got with SMP.
But at least it's something.

It's only lower for the first 6 weeks - the first 6 weeks of SMP would have been paid at 90% of her usual earnings, no matter how high or low they are. Then it is £117 per week. MA is simply £117 per week for the whole 9 months.

It is only substantially lower if she earned a lot at the job where she was made redundant.

As for working between now and maternity leave, and after the baby is born, would she consider temping? I have been doing this since I was made redundant at about 14 weeks and I chose to tell the temping agencies I was pregnant, and they haven't been holding back on the job offers, as far as I can tell. I have been doing things like reception work and selling tickets for a two day agricultural show, and the great thing about temping is you can turn down anything you don't fancy.

I was on a fairly low wage before I got pregnant so temping hasn't dented my income too much, but if she was on a higher wage before, it might be difficult. Fills a gap though!

JimmyTheWig

foreversomeday wrote: »

It's only lower for the first 6 weeks - the first 6 weeks of SMP would have been paid at 90% of her usual earnings, no matter how high or low they are. Then it is £117 per week. MA is simply £117 per week for the whole 9 months.

I'd never realised that. That's pretty rubbish, isn't it.
Though I guess some employers have better maternity packages than the state minimum.

As for working between now and maternity leave, and after the baby is born, would she consider temping?

That's a really good idea. An employer isn't going to mind if you need to finish work in, say, three months if it's only a one month temping job.