Maternity leave for primary earner

amancalledmartin

Hi all

After years of thinking we definitely didn't want children, we're now starting to think differently, but are trying to be practical and look properly at how it will affect us. As things stand my husband couldn't afford to keep a family if I didn't work, and I would prefer to return to work. However, I've only just found out that statutory maternity pay is significantly less than I previously thought. After 65 weeks I would take a pay cut of over £400 a week if I stayed off work. Am I reading this right? How do other families cope where the wife/mother is the breadwinner?

Kayalana99

Usally you get paid for the first 9months 12 weeks at 90% and then the last 6months at 135/weekly.

This is BASIC tho and your employer may offer more.

Why do you think you will take a paycut after 65 weeks? Don't understand this.

Also if you are main income I would think your benifits would be quite high whilst your off work, for a start you get £80 a month per child anyway and then if your earning less then £25k as a couple I think you can claim (Worth doing a benifit caculator online)

Also whilst earning SMP you can take off £100 a week as 'income' which puts your benifits up again (I.e if you earnt 8,000 that year and was off for 39 weeks you'd only claim 4,100 as income)

PurpleFairy26

Maybe is that a typo and and should be 6 weeks.

I am in the exact position you are now, on mat leave with my second child, but am the main earner. The only way we could do it was to save hard beforehand and have saved the difference between my salary and mat pay. This time round, I won't be able to stay off for the 9 months I wanted to as due to a large expense last year we didnt have quite as much saved as we would have liked.

We also didn't spend lots on baby things - 2nd hand, hand me downs etc.. And we are thrifty wherever we can be to save pennies

sweaty_betty

amancalledmartin wrote: »

Hi all

After years of thinking we definitely didn't want children, we're now starting to think differently, but are trying to be practical and look properly at how it will affect us. As things stand my husband couldn't afford to keep a family if I didn't work, and I would prefer to return to work. However, I've only just found out that statutory maternity pay is significantly less than I previously thought. After 65 weeks I would take a pay cut of over £400 a week if I stayed off work. Am I reading this right? How do other families cope where the wife/mother is the breadwinner?

I'm guessing you mean after 6 weeks?
First thing I would suggest is to check to see if your employer offers enhanced maternity pay - some places offer between 12-26 weeks on full pay, sometimes depending on how long you've been there. Often this is subject to you returning to work but it sounds like this wouldn't be an issue for you.

Back to the original question - yes losing that amount of income, albeit temporarily, is a real shock to the system. However you can soften the blow by saving as much as possible before mat leave begins, find out where you can be as MSE as possible, change to a cheaper mortgage deal, etc etc, attempt to live on less cash now to see how it could be done.

Also - and this may not be a popular thing to say - you don't have to take the full 12 months off work. I went back after 6 months for purely financial reasons as I was in a similar position to you. It's not ideal, but a necessity for many.

It's also worth saying that if both parents will work after the baby is born you will need to factor in the price of childcare into your budget - remembering that childcare vouchers or the new equivalent scheme are available to help with this for some.

amancalledmartin

Thank you for your replies. Yes it was a typo - sorry! I did mean 6 weeks. My employer offers SMP only. I work in a very male dominated industry and frankly women having babies is just an irritation to them. I certainly wouldn't be able to take 12 months off (even if we could afford to) as I'd find it very hard to catch up. I had hoped to be off between 3 - 4 months and then try and go back 4 days a week for a couple of months, back full time after 6 months. If I did that, I've calculated we'd lose over £5k in earnings. Looks like saving is the way forward! Useful to know about tax credits though, thank you for that. To be honest, this could all be irrelevant. We haven't started trying yet so may not be even able to get pregnant!

Claree__x

amancalledmartin wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. Yes it was a typo - sorry! I did mean 6 weeks. My employer offers SMP only. I work in a very male dominated industry and frankly women having babies is just an irritation to them. I certainly wouldn't be able to take 12 months off (even if we could afford to) as I'd find it very hard to catch up. I had hoped to be off between 3 - 4 months and then try and go back 4 days a week for a couple of months, back full time after 6 months. If I did that, I've calculated we'd lose over £5k in earnings. Looks like saving is the way forward! Useful to know about tax credits though, thank you for that. To be honest, this could all be irrelevant. We haven't started trying yet so may not be even able to get pregnant!

Did I not hear something about it being possible to "share" maternity leave between parents?

amancalledmartin

Maternity leave, yes, but that won't affect us financially. DH has already agreed he will be primary carer when I go back. But I would feel bad enough leaving a 6 month old full time, let alone 3 month old.
I was just surprised how SMP worked. Someone (clearly someone with an amazing employer!) told me they got full pay for 3 months, half pay for 6 months and then the last 3 months unpaid. I had no idea you only got 6 weeks at 90% and then only £135 a week (which you also get taxed on).

Kayalana99

amancalledmartin wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. Yes it was a typo - sorry! I did mean 6 weeks. My employer offers SMP only. I work in a very male dominated industry and frankly women having babies is just an irritation to them. I certainly wouldn't be able to take 12 months off (even if we could afford to) as I'd find it very hard to catch up. I had hoped to be off between 3 - 4 months and then try and go back 4 days a week for a couple of months, back full time after 6 months. If I did that, I've calculated we'd lose over £5k in earnings. Looks like saving is the way forward! Useful to know about tax credits though, thank you for that. To be honest, this could all be irrelevant. We haven't started trying yet so may not be even able to get pregnant!

I googled it before and got 12 weeks not 6 but it is 6 weeks sorry! I would of probally realised it was a type if I had seen 6 weeks instead of 12.

Is this your first child? Mine is 7months old and only now do I feel like it would be ok for me to go back to work - not me personally I cant really explain it but any eariler and I wouldnt of felt right leaving him....(I am not going back till 9 months but just saying I wouldnt of wanted to leave him any eariler)

3months is not along time to have off with a baby...but then one of my managers had 2 weeks off and was back so its not unheard of :-)

Worth thinking about though as if you can have more time off with your baby you won't regret it!

Don't forget to take hoildays into account as well - if you dont use them up before hand anyway I took 5 weeks off (my whole years hoilday I hadnt used) then took my SMP after (and the 5 weeks is full pay to)

amancalledmartin wrote: »

told me they got full pay for 3 months, half pay for 6 months and then the last 3 months unpaid. I had no idea you only got 6 weeks at 90% and then only £135 a week (which you also get taxed on).

Thats what I would of got but I was such a low earner in first place I am on £135 a week now but Im only about £100 down...

fannyanna

My Husband and I are trying for a baby and like you I am the higher earner.

I suppose we're in a fortunate position where we don't currently rely on all of our income - we use a certain amount to pay the bills and have a bit of spending money and then put the rest in savings (which currently pays for our decorating costs).

I've worked out roughly what we'll need when I'm on maternity. My Husbands salary plus my maternity pay will not cover it so we'll need to use some savings. I know that we'll be able to save the excess we'll need during the pregnancy months but if you think you'd need to save over a longer period of time you could start putting away some money now. If I had done that I'd feel rich by now as it's coming up to two years since we started trying

amancalledmartin

Kayalana - yes, I also think 3 months isn't long enough, but I think it's one of those things we'll have to play by ear and bite the bullet when it comes to it. This would be our first. I honestly thought I never wanted children (I'm 33) so I'm massively surprised to be even having these thoughts!
Fannyanna - I hope you fall soon! We'll definitely need to plan in advance and I think I will start saving now. We wouldn't be able to save up enough in 7-8 months. And should we not manage to conceive then extra savings never did anyone any harm!

pinkshoes

amancalledmartin wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. Yes it was a typo - sorry! I did mean 6 weeks. My employer offers SMP only. I work in a very male dominated industry and frankly women having babies is just an irritation to them. I certainly wouldn't be able to take 12 months off (even if we could afford to) as I'd find it very hard to catch up. I had hoped to be off between 3 - 4 months and then try and go back 4 days a week for a couple of months, back full time after 6 months. If I did that, I've calculated we'd lose over £5k in earnings. Looks like saving is the way forward! Useful to know about tax credits though, thank you for that. To be honest, this could all be irrelevant. We haven't started trying yet so may not be even able to get pregnant!

I worked in a male dominant environment, and equal earner with OH. I always though I'd go back full time, but 2.5 years after DS was born, I quit my career and am training to be a teacher! I couldn't care less about my lost earnings now, as we manage!

Is money really that important? Can you manage losing £5k in earnings?


The government are thinking about flexible parental leave in 2014 where the father can take the leave.

Legally, you only have to take 2 weeks off after the birth.