Maternity leave

sammy_wheeler

Can someone translate my works policy please-
bit of background from me- i have been in the company nearly 2 years

thanks!

Your length of service
All pregnant employees regardless of service- up to 52 weeks unpaid maternity leave consistency of: 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks aditional maternity leave. During the maternity leave period the employee can do up to 10 Keeping in Touch days (KIT) paid * days work under her contract of employment, with the agreement of her line manger.
* one KIT days pay being full pay inclusive of any paid maternity entitlment for that day.

All pregnant employees with 26 weeks service or more as at the end of 15th week before EWC and earnings are above the lower earnings limit- Up to 52 continous weeks maternity leave consisting of 26 weeks paid ordinary maternity leave at the following rates: 6 weeks @ full pay ** and 20 weeks @ 50% of pay ** plus 13 weeks paid additional maternity leave at the following rates: 50% of pay ** plus 13 weeks unpaid additional maternity leave.

** the definition of pay for the purposes of calculating maternity pay is the higher of full pay and agreed allowances at the beginning of maternity leave, or average earnings, including agreed allowances, of the 8 week period prior to the qualifing week for SMP, whichever is higher.

Nicki

OK I'll give it a go.

You will get

6 weeks at your full salary
33 weeks at half your salary
13 weeks unpaid if you wish

For the purposes of calculating your salary, they will usually use the amount you were earning per week in your final week before you start your maternity leave. But because there may be circumstances where this doesn't reflect your actual earnings, eg because you were ill and on SSP, or you had reduced your hours at the end of the pregnancy, they will also do a calculation for a period earlier in your pregnancy and work out what your average weekly wage was at that point. If this is more than what you were earning at the end of the pregnancy, this is the figure they will use.

The earlier period they look at to calculate the fall back figure starts 22 weeks before the week your baby is due and ends 15 weeks before the baby is due. They will do Monday to Friday, so it will begin on the Monday of the week you turn 18 weeks in.

Does that make sense?

sammy_wheeler

nicki- i think that makes sense! i will bookmark it for when the time comes ttc from dec- so just thinking ahead
it so complicated lol. thanks nicki

Icey77

Hi SW,

It looks like your company offer maternity pay over and above the statutory minimum for employees that have been employed for more than 6 months (26 weeks)

According to your company policy you will be paid 6 weeks at full salary, the next 20 weeks at 50% salary (this is the 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave), the next 13 weeks at 50% salary and the next 13 weeks unpaid (this is the 26 weeks of additional maternity leave)

This is VERY, VERY generous and should be snapped up!! The only thing to bear in mind is that if you decide not to return to work after the 52 weeks of leave you will have to repay your company the difference between the statutory maternity pay and the maternity pay that your company offers you above.

It would be most likely that you would have to return to your job for a certain amount time before you could leave (if you wanted) and not have to repay the difference.

I hope this has helped a little - I wish my company was as generous!

Icey x

sammy_wheeler

nice to hear they are looking after us! thanks icey

it is likely i will go back to work after about 24 weeks and hubby takes additional paternity pay-- this wont cause a problem will it?

CL

sammy_wheeler wrote: »

nice to hear they are looking after us! thanks icey

it is likely i will go back to work after about 24 weeks and hubby takes additional paternity pay-- this wont cause a problem will it?

Your husband may only receive statutory paternity pay £128 per week, so it may be financially much better for you if you take the 39 weeks that your employer pays above SMP for.

I'm jealous. My employer only pays SMP

Kira000

Oh, and on the point of KIT days, it means that over the course of your mat leave (whether you take 6 weeks, 6 months or a year), if you agree you want to, and your employer wants you to, you are allowed to go to work for up to 10 days (used for general catch up, actual work, team days, training days), without it affecting your maternity pay. For each KIT day that you work you will be paid your usual full daily rate including the daily maternity entitlement for the day. Ie If you worked your usual work daily rate out as being £100, and the daily rate of maternity pay on that day was 50% of usual pay (i.e £50), then you would be paid a total of the daily rate, made up of £50 for your work, and £50 mat pay. If it was on a 90% day, then it would be a total of £100, made up of £10 work rate, and £90 maternity entitlement. If it was during the unpaid leave part, then you would get the full £100 but as your daily rate, with no mat entitlement element.

If you work any more than the 10 allowable days, then you lose the maternity entitlement for that week, and just get the daily rate.

mysk_girl

Do watch out for the amount of time you have to go back for to keep your occupational pay. Mine was 12 months...

sammy_wheeler

thanks everyone

getmore4less

You also need to plan what to do with the holidays you acrue.

sammy_wheeler

getmore4less wrote: »

You also need to plan what to do with the holidays you acrue.

what do people usually do?- build them up and use them at the end of maternity?