Can anyone help me - NHS maternity pay.

ClaireLR

I wondered if anyone has any experience of NHS maternity pay and could help me out.

NHS maternity pay for me = 8 weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay + SMP and 13 weeks of SMP only (totalling 39 weeks).

I am currently at the end of my 6th week of maternity leave, I started my maternity leave on 18 October. At the end of October I didn't receive a payslip but my pay was the same as always (£1363 net) into my bank. However, today I have received my payslip and have only been paid £1316.68, and I can't understand why. My payslip shows the following - OMP £2493.04, basic pay arrears (minus)£796.95.

I've rung our payroll department and the woman who pays my wage is away on annual leave, back next week. However, the woman I spoke to said that she couldn't see why the pay was less than other months and would ask the woman who does pay me to contact me next week. She then went onto mention that where I had been deducted £796.95 this should have been more like £900+ deducted :eek: but couldn't/wouldn't explain why :mad: The only thing she went onto tell me is that mat pay is calculated on an average pay over a certain amount of weeks, I did receive a payrise in July but even before that my pay was never less than £1330.

I'd really appreciate if anyone has any idea why my pay has dropped already at 6 weeks as I don't understand it at all and would like to get a better idea before the wages lady calls me back next week.

Many thanks :beer:

MrsManda

Are you sure the first 8 weeks are paid at full pay?

I don't know the terms of NHS maternity pay though I think it depends the Trust. However if I was you I'd have a look at my contract and the staff handbook just to check that what you are expecting is correct so that when you speak to payroll next week you have the evidence of your entitlement before you.

I'd also track down the missing payslip so you have the full breakdown of your pay since going on maternity leave

ClaireLR

Hi, yes it's definitely 8 weeks at full pay

Someone has just called me back from payroll and said that what I have been paid is definitely correct, apparently it goes back to my payrise at the end of July, and the average earnings are from end of July and end of Aug. End of July's net pay was £1338.69, end of August net pay was £1366.42. While I understand that my mat pay is linked to my average gross earnings, how would this make my average net earnings less? I still may ring back next week and I don't understand really, probably my pregnancy brain atm!

MrsManda

I just realised how badly written my post was, I'm sorry.
I'd definitely get a copy of your missing payslip so that you have all the payslips covering the start of your maternity leave.

The only thing I can think of which would mean you wouldn't get your full pay is if you were not intending on going back to work after your maternity leave because the rates of OMP are different I think.

FBaby

I work for a pct and it is common practice here for pregnant staff to agree to be paid each month of their maternity leave at the same rate so that it's easier to budget. However, I'm pretty sure they don't do that unless previously agreed with the staff. I would still look into that possibility.

kimmi_b

Hi, are you paid on a 4 weekly basis or calendar monthly basis? My mat leave entitlement was the same as yours and I am paid calendar monthly - my mat pay was based on average earnings and was paid on a daily basis i.e. in a 4 week month there would be less payable days and therefore my salary would be less. It was weird but I expected it as our payroll dept issued a spreadsheet before going on mat leave which detailed what each month payment would be (after tax & NI).

clairec79

I'm also on mat leave from the NHS and got paid my first pay since going on mat leave, I've got more than normal (I think it's because I did do a lot of weekends in the pay period working out the average plus my unsocial hours from the last month of work)

Didn't you get a letter from HR detailing how much it was going to be? I did

ClaireLR

Wow the last two posts, I have actually asked about this and been told that they can't/don't do it due to tax reasons and the possibility of mistakes being made! I've not had anything from HR about my maternity pay, just a copy of the maternity leave policy from my manager.

Kimmi thank you, I think that would actually make sense looking at it that way. Bit gutted as I've picked up around £50 less this month than I thought I would, and also didn't realise that had I done overtime, which I could have at that point, then my mat pay would have been more!

delerium

Nhs mat pay is indeed paid for 8 weeks at full pay but the way this is worked out is by paying you weekly (as smp is) at full pay then adding smp then subtracting the amount of smp so you get what you would normally get.

The reason you got more in the first month is because your mat pay started half way through a month and the smp works out in a really complicated way, from Sunday to saturday but only if the dates = the same month (at the end of months).

So you would have been paid for whatever shift allowances etc for the 3.5 weeks of October (1st to the 17th) then 2 weeks mat pay which will incorporate 2 weeks SMP as there are 2 full weeks. You will not have received payment for the 31st of OCtober as yet because it falls in Novembers mat pay.

November as far as SMP goes is a 4 week month so you will automatically see a little less in your wages.

December you will get 2 weeks full pay then 2 weeks half pay with SMP.

January you will get 5 weeks half pay and SMP.

Feb 4 weeks half pay and SMP.

And so on......

I remember going through it in fine detail with payroll when I had DD, I think the payroll asst was impressed I understood!! I don't know if I have explained it as well as she did though!

There is an option to receive average pay over the 9 months but I was advised against this by the payroll asst as she said it didn't make budgeting any easier basically because you still only get the £120 SMP added weekly. Ie a 4 week month you get £480 on top of the average then £600 in a 5 week month. I think you have to advise payroll before you start mat leave if this is something you want to do.

I start mat leave on the 5th of Dec so have it all refreshed in my mind.

Ps going on my summations of your wages I would hazard a guess at you wages being roughly

Dec 1334
Jan 1310
Feb 1048

This is me presuming you're a band 5 nurse on the first increment or band 4 nursing asst on 6th increment ( which I base on what you say your average wage has been and adding tax, ni and super ann on) and that you contribute to the superann but have no other outgoings such as lease car or childcare voucher.

ClaireLR

Delerium thank you so much for that post, it's made it so much clearer to me. It seems that other NHS workers payroll departments are a LOT better than ours, every time I've had to ring up about anything I've never really spoken to anyone that seems to be able to give me a straight answer which is frustrating.

I'm a band 4 med sec and don't contribute to superann or anything else (other than £11 union subs) - do you think that the estimates for Dec/Jan and Feb would still be about right? Luckily my OH works full time so we have his wages too but for people who rely on their mat pay it must be really frustrating to not know from one month to the next what money they are getting!

Thanks again

[Deleted User]

Also Maternity Pay is now calculated in Calendar Days rather than weekly/Monthly, which can sometimes cause discrepancies.
I tend to provide expectant Mothers with a Schedule showing how much they get each week for 39 weeks with a Total at the bottom, then a Month on Month Schedule showing what the get each Month. I also use this schedule to double check what the payroll software calculates is in agreement. I find that even if people can't understand the Month on Month calculation, they can see the 2 figures match at the end of the day, so go away happy :-)