Maternity leave pay query

Anne42

Hi everyone

I hope someone here can help me or point me in the right direction.

I am in the fortunate position to get 6 month full pay maternity leave from my employer. Basically I will get the statutory allowance and my employer will make up the difference.

My question now is will I still be able to receive the remaining 7 weeks statutory maternity pay of £124.88? I am guessing the answer is yes but how will my holiday entitlement affect this payment?

I am basically taking June to November off as maternity leave on the full pay mentioned above and then for December I am using my holiday allowance for the year so I can have another month with my baby. Will I be allowed to claim £124.88 statutory pay for each week in December even though I am getting my holiday pay? If so this would enable me to take January off as well. Saving the money I'll receive in December and add this to January's allowance and this would only leave me a little short of my usual monthly income but I have another month with my baby.

The thought of leaving her in the care of someone else makes me feel sad already, but we do rely on my income at the moment. It may well change by then but we cannot guarantee that and unfortunately we are in not in a financial position at the moment too lose my pay and to survive on just the basic £124.88 a week and we are also unable to put any money aside at the moment to make up for the shortfall (salary has not gone up for three years and I am well below the so called average wage anyway).

We are not entitled to anything other than child benefits and, once I am back at work, working tax credits (well I hope we get those).

I know I am fortunate by getting 6 month full pay but if I would be entitled to another 7 weeks off with the pay option described above I would be over the moon.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope someone here knows the answer or can point me in the right direction. I'd like some idea before talking to my payroll manager.
x

paddedjohn

From what ive read on other threads on the subject you cant have holiday pay and receive maternity pay, once you are on holiday pay you are deemed to have finished your maternity leave. Im think this is correct but someone else may know better.

mrsspendalot

paddedjohn wrote: »

From what ive read on other threads on the subject you cant have holiday pay and receive maternity pay, once you are on holiday pay you are deemed to have finished your maternity leave. Im think this is correct but someone else may know better.

This is correct - once you go from maternity to annual leave, you have returned to work and your entitlement to SMP ends.

paddedjohn

when does your holiday year run from/to, will your employers let you take any holidays owing to you at the end of your maternity leave?

iamana1ias

Anne42 wrote: »

Hi everyone

I hope someone here can help me or point me in the right direction.

I am in the fortunate position to get 6 month full pay maternity leave from my employer. Basically I will get the statutory allowance and my employer will make up the difference.

My question now is will I still be able to receive the remaining 7 weeks statutory maternity pay of £124.88? I am guessing the answer is yes but how will my holiday entitlement affect this payment?

I am basically taking June to November off as maternity leave on the full pay mentioned above and then for December I am using my holiday allowance for the year so I can have another month with my baby. Will I be allowed to claim £124.88 statutory pay for each week in December even though I am getting my holiday pay? If so this would enable me to take January off as well. Saving the money I'll receive in December and add this to January's allowance and this would only leave me a little short of my usual monthly income but I have another month with my baby.

The thought of leaving her in the care of someone else makes me feel sad already, but we do rely on my income at the moment. It may well change by then but we cannot guarantee that and unfortunately we are in not in a financial position at the moment too lose my pay and to survive on just the basic £124.88 a week and we are also unable to put any money aside at the moment to make up for the shortfall (salary has not gone up for three years and I am well below the so called average wage anyway).

We are not entitled to anything other than child benefits and, once I am back at work, working tax credits (well I hope we get those).

I know I am fortunate by getting 6 month full pay but if I would be entitled to another 7 weeks off with the pay option described above I would be over the moon.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope someone here knows the answer or can point me in the right direction. I'd like some idea before talking to my payroll manager.
x

As comments above. Your best case scenario financially would be to take the 26 weeks full pay, then 13 weeks SMP and then to take your accrued holiday (which should give you at least 3 weeks of full pay again), You actually return to work after 42 weeks but go back onto full pay after 39.

menollyke

My company did the same. (first six months full pay, although ended up slightly less than normal) However when you take holiday you can't claim the rest of the SMP. You do however have 10 KIT (keep in touch) days which are paid full pay and you can take them in december whilst being on smp. So if you spread those ten days over 4 weeks you might be able to make it work financially. You have to work it out for your own circumstances though, cause if you need to earn a full time wage it might not be enough.

Don't forget that when you go on mat leave you can phone tax credits office and tell them the estimated figure for this years income. You can deduct 100 pounds a week for the time you take maternity leave, but the rest you have to know how much you will be earning to april. It might be that you are entitled to a bit more for the first year whilst you are on mat leave. (we were)

Are you allowed to carry over any annual leave you can't take before maternity leave or do you have to take your annual leave before december? If so, you can start maternity leave as late as you can and take all your annual leave before hand. Maternity leave starts as soon as baby is born, but if you are lucky baby will come around due date and you can have some weeks off before hand.

iamana1ias

menollyke wrote: »

My company did the same. (first six months full pay, although ended up slightly less than normal) However when you take holiday you can't claim the rest of the SMP. You do however have 10 KIT (keep in touch) days which are paid full pay and you can take them in december whilst being on smp. So if you spread those ten days over 4 weeks you might be able to make it work financially. You have to work it out for your own circumstances though, cause if you need to earn a full time wage it might not be enough.
.

KIT days have to be approved by the employer - they're not an entitlement per se.

Anne42

paddedjohn wrote: »

when does your holiday year run from/to, will your employers let you take any holidays owing to you at the end of your maternity leave?

Our holiday year runs from January to December. My company used to pay any untaken days at the end of December but because too many people have used this system to up their salary that way they have now scrapped it and basically we lose any untaken days apart from the 3 we are allowed to carry over.

cte1111

Why not take your holiday before you go on maternity leave? So defer your maternity leave until your due date, then actually go off 3 weeks earlier taking holiday for that period. Then you can take the 6 months on full pay followed by however many weeks you have left on maternity pay.

Anne42

iamana1ias wrote: »

As comments above. Your best case scenario financially would be to take the 26 weeks full pay, then 13 weeks SMP and then to take your accrued holiday (which should give you at least 3 weeks of full pay again), You actually return to work after 42 weeks but go back onto full pay after 39.

Unfortunately this is not an option because our holiday year runs from January to December. I am only allwed to carry 3 days over into the new year so any days I have not taken I will lose.

As mentioned in a previous reply, we used to get any untaken days paid, but too many people used this system to up their wages that way so the company has put a stop to it.

Apart from that just receiving smp for 13 weeks would not cover our basic outgoings.

Anne42

cte1111 wrote: »

Why not take your holiday before you go on maternity leave? So defer your maternity leave until your due date, then actually go off 3 weeks earlier taking holiday for that period. Then you can take the 6 months on full pay followed by however many weeks you have left on maternity pay.

For me it's about having the time off with my baby, not just the time off. Saving my holiday allowance and working as close as possible to my due date will enable me to add another month the my time off with the baby. I was simply hoping that I would be allowed to claim the basic smp, but that would have been too nice to be true really.

I will not be able to cover my basic outgoings on £124.88 a week and unfortunately money does matter; especially since it is only for the basics. I wouldn't be fussed about any luxuries but bills need to be paid.

Nevermind. Back to work in January.