PLEASE HELP - Maternity Pay

shellsuit

Little_Pickle wrote: »

They have said they will arrange Maternity Allowance for me... so I don't have to 'do anything'.

YOU have to claim Maternity Allowance, it has nothing to do with your amployer/agency ~ they can't claim it on your behalf.

I don't think they have a clue what they are doing :rolleyes: no wonder your head's all over the place! xx



EDIT : Read through this PDF about Maternity Allowance, work can't fill that form in for you, and I don't have a clue where they get it from that they could!

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/ma1.pdf

Little_Pickle

Thanks Shellsuit.
Very emotional and tired today. I am all over the place and not reading posts properly. I apologise.

Sorry for coming across as a complete idiot. 1st time for all of this and I have no friends that have children so I'm crawling about in the dark so to speak!

My agency have no idea what they are doing either to be honest.

I shall look at all of my options and try to speak to a few people before I come back on and make a further fool of myself.

Someone above mentioned that I have to give my agency my MATB1 form then agency give me the form to state why they won't pay me SMP.
Then I can claim Maternity Allowance (I always thought I needed to do this myself, but they are saying they can arrange for me.)

*sigh*
sorry to waste your time and thank you SO much for all of the links and help...
LP
xox

shellsuit

Little_Pickle wrote: »

Thanks Shellsuit.
Very emotional and tired today. I am all over the place and not reading posts properly. I apologise.

Sorry for coming across as a complete idiot. 1st time for all of this and I have no friends that have children so I'm crawling about in the dark so to speak!

My agency have no idea what they are doing either to be honest.

I shall look at all of my options and try to speak to a few people before I come back on and make a further fool of myself.

Someone above mentioned that I have to give my agency my MATB1 form then agency give me the form to state why they won't pay me SMP.
Then I can claim Maternity Allowance (I always thought I needed to do this myself, but they are saying they can arrange for me.)

*sigh*
sorry to waste your time and thank you SO much for all of the links and help...
LP
xox

Please don't be sorry!

I could sense you were in a panic and were trying to make head and tail of it ~ it doesn't help that your work doesn't seem to have a clue what they are doing!

Yes sorry, you're right. Get your MATB1 form (don't take no for an answer, say you need it ASAP for work purposes) and give it into work. Then they should issue you with form SMP1, with the reasons why they won't pay you Maternity Pay.

I hope you get it sorted - I know how frustrating it is xxx

Dormouse

I was a temp with an agency when I had DS1 and got SMP. Wonder why your case is different, OP?

honeypop

This is the form they need to fill in, explaining why they won't pay you SMP. You need this form to claim Maternity Allowance, so they have to fill it in. Also, they cannot claim it on your behalf, you have to do this.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/smp1_print.pdf

My work kept claiming not to know about this form, so I printed it off and gave it to them to complete so they had no reason not to do it, maybe you need to do that too to spur them into action! They didn't need to see my MATB1 in order to do this either.

It is correct that if you are self-employed then you can only get MA rather than SMP, but I thought from your posts that you were employed by the agency, rather than self-employed - do you pay your tax/NIC or do they?

Little_Pickle

Thanks all...

Okay - I have been with the Agency for nearly 3 years.
They pay my Tax and NI (I am PAYE).
However, in the small print of my contract it states that:
The Temporary Worker is engaged as a self-employed worker.

hence I am confused about whether I get SMP or not...
LP
xox

skintchick

LP - as far as I am aware (and I may be wrong) but if you are PAYE then you are NOT self-employed. Self-employed people do a tax return. I've been both, and all my PAYE jobs have been 'employed' and only those where I invoice have been SE.

I think they are trying to pull a fast one.

honeypop

Little_Pickle wrote: »

Thanks all...

Okay - I have been with the Agency for nearly 3 years.
They pay my Tax and NI (I am PAYE).
However, in the small print of my contract it states that:
The Temporary Worker is engaged as a self-employed worker.

hence I am confused about whether I get SMP or not...
LP
xox

That bit in bold above, means you are NOT self-employed, so you should get SMP. So they need to sort themselves out and state their reasons for not paying you SMP on that form I linked to. Good luck, they sound a nightmare!

Also, this is from the direct.gov wesite regarding SMP:
"If you believe your employer's decision not to pay SMP to you is wrong, or that you are not getting the correct amount, then you should contact HM Revenue and Customs (Statutory Payments Disputes team) on 0191 225 5221. They make decisions on SMP where the employer and employee cannot agree."

Little_Pickle

thank you thank you thank you!!!!
I'll let you know the outcome.
LP
xox

honeypop

I have my uses sometimes...