Maternity leave for primary earner

emsaint

My son is nearly 8 months and i took 6 months off and returned to work. I am the sole earner as my husband looks after our son. My husband has been off work for a few years after being diagnosed and receiving treatment for a serious illness. I received 6 weeks full pay, 12 weeks half pay plus SMP and the remaining 21 weeks as SMP only. After my salary stopped, i arranged to take some of my outstanding annual leave and returned to work after 6 months.

I'm not going to say that returning to work was easy as i found that it wasn't.But i know that my son is having a fantastic time with his dad. I certainly feel that 6 months was the earliest i could have gone back as the first 3 months flew by and i was in a daze for most of it. I found trying to put as much money away before the birth helped, so did working up to the birth - worked to 38 weeks.

Whatever you do, you will do it as it is the best for your family.

sulkisu

I'm another one in your position, but at least you have the advantage of planning your baby and saving in preparation. I am the higher earner and I was fortunate enough to already have savings when I found out that I was pregnant with DS1, and had a sufficiently high income that allowed me to save a considerable amount before my maternity leave started.

My employer provides a pretty good maternity package of 26 weeks on full pay followed by 13 weeks SMP, which obviously helped. I can only reiterate what others have said, save, save and save. If you are still at the 'trying' stage, you have at least 10 months to build a nest egg.

Dinosaur_Train

Not sure if someone else has already said this as I haven't read all the replies, but if your partner is working and on a low wage, and you are just getting maternity pay, then you will probably qualify for tax credits whilst you are off. Also you will get child benefit

sweaty_betty

I'm the high earner and we couldn't afford for me to be off more than 6 months, even with my (then) maternity deal of 18 weeks full pay. We worked out that with nursery fees and me going down to 4 days, we were £1K a month worse off :eek:
I'm now pregnant again. This time with twins :eek:. We've made the decision that neither of us want to give up work completely, partly because we (mostly) enjoy work and also for long-term career reasons. So, the current plan is for OH to drop to 3 days a week, while I keep to 4 days, so we're only paying for childcare for 2 days. We just about have enough savings to pay the mortgage etc for my period of SMP (this time it'll be 12 weeks full pay, so 14 weeks on SMP until I go back).

However, money is still going to be very tight for the next few years.

Ultimately it's all a trade-off between being able to afford to live (and by that I mean the basic stuff, keeping out of debt and paying the mortgage with the occasional treat of eating out - no holidays unfortunately) and spending time with our children. It's a tough call and no one can make the decision for you, you've just got to do what you think is best.

neverdespairgirl

OP, when I found out I was pregnant, unexpectedly, I was earning more than OH, too. And we're both self-employed, so there wasn't any maternity / paternity package going, only maternity allowance, which is the same as SMP (or was, then, my son's coming up to 8, it might have changed).

My job's the type where it's pretty difficult to take time off, too - I did one day back when my son was 5 weeks old, with my mother looking after him, then went back part-time when he was 3 months old, and full-time when he was 6 months old.

It can be done, just be aware of the income gap, and make sure you claim things such as child benefit, if you are eligable for it, as soon as you can.

WE are thinking of having #2, but fortunately, OH now earns more than I do, so it won't be such a drastic financial reduction.

Bluemeanie_2

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

True. I think it's often beneficial to return to work after a first child (if only to break even but keep your skills current for long term earning power), but an absolute killer to fund childcare for 2+ children for most people.

Agreed. After stoppages, student loan and pension I come out with £1800. Luckily I'll only need 2 days paid childcare so £90 a week, plus I'll get some tax relief through "Busy Bee" scheme. But if I paid full time which is £850 a month it would still be worth me working to maintain my skills and would still get £950 a month. However as you can see the minute we had two you're talking every penny of wages on childcare. We wouldn't get any help through CTC either.

jtr2803

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Sorry but this is wrong, not all companies can claim it back. plus there is the cost of training, advertising etc

But that is just part of running a business and should be factored in by employers.

Are you sure about that?

HMRC rules states that the recovery rate for SMP depends on your liability for class 1 NIC, if it's under £45k then you can reclaim 100% of SMP, if it is over £45k then you reclaim 92%, still the majority.

I work for a company with a PAYE bill of over £12m a year and we still reclaim 92% of SMP.