Maternity Pay advice/help

abbybryan1982

Hi All,

Myself and my OH are currently trying for a baby and although I'm not pregnant yet, I'd like to find out some info about maternity pay.

I work full time in the local council and earn around £15,444 a year so after tax/ni and pension I take home £1030 a month.

My maths is pretty bad so I'm wondering if anyone can shed light on how much I would expect to receive during maternity leave. (I hope to take 12 months leave so am currently saving a bit of money each month to cover the 3 months unpaid leave)

I appreciate I would have family allowance (or whatever it's called now) each week but just wondering what I would be looking at having each month throughout my maternity.

Also, If I took the 3 extra months off unpaid how would I go about paying my pension contributions?

Thanks in advance!

MrsManda

You need to look at your work contract to see if you are entitled to occupational maternity pay or just statutory maternity pay.

Statutory Maternity Pay is 90% of your usual pay for 6 weeks (£15444/52 = £297*90% = £267.30 a week) - you may pay a little tax on the £267.30.
followed by 33 weeks at £128.73

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_175917

Again with your pension contributions you need to consult your contract to see if there's any provision for it to be continued to be paid or whether you'll need to find the money elsewhere if you want to continue paying it for that period.

neneromanova

You will get 90% of your weekly earnings for 6 weeks, then for the next 33 weeks you will get a standard rate of £128 (was last time i had it). The 3 months unpaid will be from 9 months to 12 months as you'll take a full year off

From http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_175917

How much do you get

If you qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) it is paid for a maximum period of 39 weeks. It is paid:

• for the first six weeks at 90 per cent of your average gross weekly earnings with no upper limit
• for the remaining 33 weeks at the lower of either the standard rate of £128.73, or 90 per cent of your average gross weekly earnings

Your employer will work out the rate of SMP you will get.

flutterby_lil

I work for the council and earn a similar amount.

My mat pay will start in march and be 90% for 6 weeks then for the next 12 weeks half pay plus SMP, it then goes to SMP only. However the 12 weeks half pay can be split equally over a certian number of week. I am taking 39 weeks Mat Leave, so the first 6 weeks is 90% then I am splitting the half pay over 33 weeks and getting SMP. I will be about £100 a month worse off over the 33 weeks, however this can be combatted against CTC as you can declare £100 a week less earning when on mat leave so I should be about the same whilst off. Hope i make sense.

Good luck with TTC.

abbybryan1982

Thanks both, and thanks for the link.

I'm sure my employer just offers SMP but will have to check in my contract later on.

At least I have an idea of what amounts to expect and it won't be so much of a shock to the system when the time happens!

Thanks again.

abbybryan1982

flutterby_lil thanks for that and thanks for the good luck TTC!

I want to try and get my head round things now and like I said, save a bit so I can afford to take the extra time off. My OH is self employed so the money he brings home really does vary.

All the best with your baby and enjoy your maternity leave!

newcook

I have a feeling (and please correct me if im wrong!!!) but I think I read somewhere that you can claim income support when on SM

newcook

oh, and dont forget you will be entitled to claim your surestart £500 maternity grant

abbybryan1982

regarding the sure start maternity grant, I thought that was for very low incomes-like 12k or below (not that I'm far from that!!)

newcook

abbybryan1982 wrote: »

regarding the sure start maternity grant, I thought that was for very low incomes-like 12k or below (not that I'm far from that!!)

from what I can gather, anyone can claim for it - though depending on what your pay is depends on when you can claim. if I was to have a baby I wouldnt be able to put a claim in until the baby was born as at the minute I earn too much and dont claim any benefits - as soon as the baby was born I would be entitled to claim child benefit which would then entitle me to claim the surestart grant.

Gillyx

Sorry newcook to be a pest, but my OH works, but isn't full time, does that mean that we could claim the surestart grant? We don't claim any of the relevant benefits