NHS: SMP and Maternity pay

macgyver

HI there,
My wife is expecting and is on maternity leave at the moment. She works in NHS snd recently changed Hospitals in her 28 the Week of pregnancy. Now she is in a different Trust. She had applied for Maternity leave and SMP to the new trust before she had started the job giving ample notice.
But now she gets a letter from the salary person of the present trust refusing to pay the SMP.
The letter says that "You have not been employed by me for 26 weeks".
Although the Trust guidelines clearly state that she should get the SMP as long as she has been employed by the NHS for 52 weeks which she has been.
But still the trust is refusing to pay SMP and telling us to apply for Maternity Allowance.
The reason they are giving is that she has not worked with the present trust for long enough although she has been working with NHS for long enough.

Any suggestions.....
Sorry for a long winding story

onlyroz

Perhaps it is the previous trust that should be paying the SMP?

macgyver

We have spoken to the previous trust as well but they are refusing to pay as well.

Thanks for the reply

PeskyPenguin

Hi, my SIL has just returned to work for the NHS after mat leave but at a different hospital. It was clearly stated to her that the enhancement the NHS pay above and beyond the statutory pay would be required to be repaid if she did not return to to work, not necessarily to her previous job, but a job within the same trust. This is obviously where the problem lies and has been missed when your wife switched jobs. What does her new contract say?

moneypanicker

I returned to work after mat leave to a different trust and i didn't have to pay anything back as it was all nhs.

However i probably would have been very cautious about moving jobs during my pregnancy. I got the new job whilst pregnant but didn't start until my mat leave finished as why would they want to give a job to someone pregnant who was going to leave in a few months and they would have to pay for me!!

Hope you get it sorted as nhs maternity pay is good.

surreysaver

The NHS is not a national employer. Each trust is a different employer - if you leave one, your employment starts again. The term 'national' is just a PR exercise by the Government. You have to be working for the employer when you get pregnant to receive Statutory Maternity Pay. Some trusts may pay more than this, or pay it if you have less service - but it is a postcode lottery for the staff, just like it is for the patients! At least women get the right to the time off - if it was a man looking to take the year off, the mother has to die for him to be allowed!

Krystaltips

Is your wife a member of a union? Her rep should be able to take something like this on... Otherwise somewhere like ACAS might know?

skintchick

Unfortunately, if you change jobs while PG you lose your SMP but you do get MA which I don;t think is much less, although obviously you also lose any employer's maternity pay.

As stated already, she changed employer as she changed Trust, so I'm afraid MA is all she is entitled to legally.

Join the club - I've been made redundant. At least your wife has a job.

jackomdj

Did she talk to anyone at the new trust before taking on the new role about SMP? If so I would go back to them about it.

As a previous poster said talk to the union about it as they should be able to help.

Good luck wiht the new baby.

Nicky

surreysaver

skintchick wrote: »

Unfortunately, if you change jobs while PG you lose your SMP but you do get MA which I don;t think is much less, although obviously you also lose any employer's maternity pay.

MA can be a lot less if your employer pays Company Maternity Pay. Don't forget with MA you don't get the six weeks 90% average earnings, either.

clairec79

The NHS maternity package is good - it more or less works out at full pay for 6 months (full pay for X weeks then half pay +SMP) it will be a huge difference.

I know my startdate for PENSION purposes went back to when I started in the NHS (changed trusts in July) but leave etc just went on when I joined this trust