12 to 24 week pregnancy thread

Jox

Ah it's my dream to be at home with my baby, and then have another one and raise that 100% too, and cook and clean and be the best wife, but I'm the higher earner in my household plus I've been working since I was 14 so am very used to my financial independence, I'll work something out, I'll smuggle baby up my jumper and breast-feed as I'm working

LannieDuck

Thanks for the info about the vouchers. That's really interesting. I had assumed I would only get them when I had salary to deduct from. Will have a chat with my friendly HR bod.

Edit: In case it helps, I've found some HMRC guidance on the matter: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/sml-salary-sacrifice.pdf

"What must the employer continue to provide to a woman when she is on statutory maternity leave, as a result of these changes to maternity leave legislation?

Employers must continue during AML (as well as OML) to provide any non-cash benefits that they have agreed to provide as a term of the employment contract I]earlier parts of the document explain that salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers counts as part of the employment contract[/I.
These non-cash benefits are what she is entitled to under her contract of employment, apart from sums payable by way of monetary wages or salary. These non-cash entitlements would include:
* non-cash vouchers, such as childcare vouchers which can only be used by the employee for qualifying childcare and are not transferable"


Re changing bags - not needed at all. Just use a bag you already own :P Alternatively, you used to get a free one when you joined boots mother-baby club. Not sure if that's still the case?

claire16c

I want to take the full 9 months off then depending how the baby is, I might get a Nanny job so I can bring the baby with me & then do that for a couple of years so we have no child care costs. Ill need to work full time as we want to buy a house in a couple of years but that way I won't have to be apart from the baby & my mum will probably want to do 1-2 days. Then I will probably try to get into some social/family support work but want to wait til our children are a bit older first.

Or ill go back into my old line of work in an office/retail but again want to wait a couple of years.

Lola888

fran-o wrote: »

Quick question for the Mums - is there any point in a proper expensive changing bag or will a big wipeable carry all do? I have my eye on something like this: http://uk.accessorize.com/view/product/uk_catalog/acc_1,acc_1.1/4890979000

I had a cheapie one from Mothercare, like this one but the whole bag is red http://www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Slouch-Change-Bag---Charcoal/374286,default,pd.html. It was half price at the time.

I then got a Pink Lining Queensdale Tote which was big, but it didn't have a shoulder strap and it didn't have as many pockets so I went back to the cheapie one. I can't find a link for that one as they don't sell them anymore.

I can sling the cheapie over my shoulder and it has loads of pockets for carrying all the bits and bobs. I will point out that I use reusables so need a biggish bag. It comes with a changing mat as well which is handy

sjlou

LannieDuck wrote: »

Public bank holidays definitely do accrue. I was able to use them to do part-time working for the first month back after having DD1.

Ive been looking into this.

My HR seems to be under the impression that bank holiday dont accrue.

Looking online, if you work full time 5 days per week statutory holiday entitlement is 28 days. I believe that its these days you should accrue.
We get 25 days + 8 bank holidays, so I can only accrue 3 bank holidays.

Dose this sound right? Need to get it right before I challenge HR.

Also starting to look at SMP and whether I will pay tax on my company car.....
Anyone with an insight please!??! Its a nightmare trying to work this all out!


I found a calculator gov.uk to work out how much smp ill get. Thats useful.
https://www.gov.uk/maternity-paternity-calculator


I'm going to use the freebie boots bag to start with, see how I get on.

twigpig

Thank lannie duck - but all that says to me is that my employer must continue to provide them, which I assumed that they would have to anyway, it doesn't say they have to give them for free (ie. not bill me for them at a later date when I start earning again)..... I'm not seeing anything about the whole not billing me later whenm I start earning again.... so confuddled, :rotfl:

sjlou - bank holiday do accrue - well, they do in my company, I accrued them on my previous leave and took them before returning back to work.

VICSH

Apologies for starting off something, as far as I am aware bank holidays do accrue if in your contract that pubic holidays are paid for and the office is closed (which mine does). so my holiday entitlement should be 23 + 8 (pro rata to 18 + 6) they were trying to say it was 18 for the whole year and I know that isnt right.
TBH It annoys me how bad company HR departments are in relations to understanding the law and the battles you have to have.

PS Aldi have a baby event this week cellular blankets are £2.99, muslins 3 pack £.149 and other bits, I have never used their stuff so no comment on quality but thought I would let people know....

LannieDuck

Re: bank holidays:

This is a local government site which seems to be quite authoritative: http://www.lge.gov.uk/lge/core/page.do?pageId=126098#contents-5

And this one has a long explanation: http://www.workingmums.co.uk/advice-and-support/all/5579874/can-bank-holidays-be-added-to-maternity-leave-ask-the-expert.thtml

LannieDuck

twigpig wrote: »

Thank lannie duck - but all that says to me is that my employer must continue to provide them, which I assumed that they would have to anyway, it doesn't say they have to give them for free (ie. not bill me for them at a later date when I start earning again)..... I'm not seeing anything about the whole not billing me later whenm I start earning again.... so confuddled, :rotfl:

If my reading of the HMRC guidance is correct....

With a salary sacrifice scheme you don't 'buy' your vouchers - you agree to a reduction in your total salary in exchange for a set amount of childcare vouchers each month. I think that's the important distinction.

The vouchers are a non-cash benefit that your employer gives you each month along with your monthly pay. (Just like they give you holiday allowance etc).

In the same way that you don't have to pay them back for the annual leave you've accrued on mat leave, you also don't need to pay them back for the vouchers.

sjlou

I've read those Lannie, but I still think that unless it states it in your companies maternity policy, they only have an obligation to give you the statutory 28 days as accrued.

TBH I'm glad its been mentioned, I want to be well informed before I challenge HR!