maternity rights when doing nhs bank work

Cris1970

My partner is 15 weeks pregnant. We are just in the process of maximising our finances, but I feel that we are getting the wrong advice about our right to maternity leave, and pay.
My partner works for the NHS. She has a part-time contract for 18 hrs. She has since before I met her 3 years ago done bank work for the NHS. Though bank work is meant to be temporary, she has weekly over that period done over 12 hours for one NHS provider who is in the same building as her contracted hours.
My partner has contacted CAPITA who provide HR for her employers. She has been told she will get maternity pay for her contracted hours but they will not take into consideration her bank hours.
Is this correct? Is their any legal rules about when temporary hours should be classed as permanent hours?

mysk_girl

Are her bank hours and her contracted hours on one payslip? Or does she get 2 payslips?

Cris1970

Two different payslips, but both from same NHS trust.

pauletruth

they won't count.

daughter was on the bank. twisted her knee and was unable to work. no sick pay ect.

mysk_girl

As far as I remember, maternity pay is calculated on actual pay received in wks 16-24 of your pregnancy, known as the reference period. So Capita may be partially right in that presumably one of her payslips shows only her contracted hours. The fact that her bank pay is on a separate payslip could mean that they are correct.

I do know that if you have 2 employers, and you pay NI on both jobs, they both have to pay you maternity pay, so you get twice as much. If she has 2 payslips, both with NI being paid, but from the same employer - who knows? HMRC have a Staturory Payments helpline which may be able to shed more light on this...

mariefab

It might be better to ask payroll how they deal with her NICs.
See page 32 below:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/cwg2.pdf

Then see page 49 below:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/helpsheets/e15.pdf

If they're adding both wages together for NIC purposes (which they probably should be, unless perhaps there is a different payroll company dealing with bank staff payroll) they should also add both together to calculate SMP.

mysk_girl

Therefore surely, if they are treating both separately for NIC, 2 lots of SMP are due? (Assuming each half is above the NIC threashold for maternity pay...)

Although this definitely applies if 2 separate employers are involved, still no idea if it holds when both payslips are from the same employer...

pauletruth

sadly its the nhs. it does not work like that.