Maternity pay

redmalc

Very briefly my sons wife has just given birth to their first child and for the first six weeks after we thought she should get 90% of her salary.
They have just checked the bank and the pay does not equate to the 90% we thought,contacted the company and they claim it is worked out on your salary between the seventeen and twenty five weeks period of your pregnancy.
The problem with that is she was of work with problems during that period and did not get paid her full salary,is this period they have quoted law or their way of not paying the full amount,please advise

browneyedbazzi

She'll have to read the maternity policy for her employer to find out how they calculate the pay. I know that my employer pays 90% of whatever your pay is during a set period (I think it's the 4 weeks starting in your 26th week of pregnancy). Some people are able to work it so they do overtime during that period so when they are on mat leave they actually end up with more maternity pay than what their regular full basic pay would have been...if you take unpaid leave during that period you would lose out though.

chrisbur

If the employer pays only statutory maternity pay then they have to follow the rules for this. For someone paid monthly it would be 90% of the average of the two months pay that was paid before the end of the qualifying week. The qualifying week is the fifteenth week before the baby is due, Sunday to Saturday being taken as the week. From what you have said this sounds like what they have done.

BrianMitchell123

Most employers do not provide paid maternity leave benefits. Paid maternity leave benefits are simply too costly for most small and medium sized business.

chrisbur

BrianMitchell123 wrote: »

Most employers do not provide paid maternity leave benefits. Paid maternity leave benefits are simply too costly for most small and medium sized business.

I assume that you are refering to additional benefits as all employers have to operate the statutory maternity pay system which is fully repaid to small employers and around 90% repaid to bigger employers.

notanewuser

redmalc wrote: »

Very briefly my sons wife has just given birth to their first child and for the first six weeks after we thought she should get 90% of her salary.
They have just checked the bank and the pay does not equate to the 90% we thought,contacted the company and they claim it is worked out on your salary between the seventeen and twenty five weeks period of your pregnancy.
The problem with that is she was of work with problems during that period and did not get paid her full salary,is this period they have quoted law or their way of not paying the full amount,please advise

The time to look into and understand this was some time ago.......

Nicki

BrianMitchell123 wrote: »

Most employers do not provide paid maternity leave benefits. Paid maternity leave benefits are simply too costly for most small and medium sized business.

This may be the case in the US, where I see from your sig that you are based, but the rules on maternity leave are set out in statute in the UK and are much more generous than in the US

Takeaway_Addict

chrisbur wrote: »

I assume that you are refering to additional benefits as all employers have to operate the statutory maternity pay system which is fully repaid to small employers and around 90% repaid to bigger employers.

I'm not sure your figures are correct but if we are going to go down this route there are other costs involved when someone goes on maternity

An extra lot of holiday pay (the woman on maternity and the cover)
Cost of employing a new member of staff (training, uniform, sick pay etc, NI, wages, tax etc)
Cost of the cover not being at the same speed as the person who has left on maternity leave so not efficiant.

etc

chrisbur

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

I'm not sure your figures are correct but if we are going to go down this route there are other costs involved when someone goes on maternity

2 lots of holiday pay (the woman on maternity and the cover)
Cost of employing a new member of staff (training, uniform, sick pay etc, NI, wages, tax etc)
Cost of the cover not being at the same speed as the person who has left on maternity leave so not efficiant.

etc

My figures refered only to the actual SMP cost as you say there are other costs involved though dificult to put a figure on them, not sure about the cost of the replacement as now not paying full wage to the one on leave; but whatever they are the employer has no choice in the matter they have to operate SMP. The point of my post was to clarify that SMP had to be operated when a previous post had suggested that few employers would operate it due to cost. It has been pointed out by Nicki (well spotted) that this post was not from someone in this country, so my reply was fairly irrelavent anyway.

Savvy_Sue

chrisbur wrote: »

If the employer pays only statutory maternity pay then they have to follow the rules for this. For someone paid monthly it would be 90% of the average of the two months pay that was paid before the end of the qualifying week. The qualifying week is the fifteenth week before the baby is due, Sunday to Saturday being taken as the week. From what you have said this sounds like what they have done.

the employer can choose to base it on 90% of 'normal' full pay, but they'll only be reimbursed by HMRC for the rate technically due.

but it does sound as if being on sick leave has had an adverse effect on her SMP.

embob74

Your son's wife's employers are correct. It is roughly those weeks that they use to calculate the SMP rate.
If she was receiving SSP for a while which resulted in her not receiving the earning limit then her employer should have refused SMP and she could have claimed Maternity Alowwance.
Unfortunately if she was sick for just a few weeks that would affect her 6 weeks payment and there is nothing that can be done about it.
If your son and wife are on a low income they can claim tax credits. The first £100 of any weekly SMP received is disregarded as income so it would be pretty much just your sons income taken into account.