Maternity Pay

bookie01

Hi, I am writing this on behalf of my fiancee. She currently works 16-17 hours per week, on £6.50 p/h, in a job she absolutely hates. She has been in this job for around 3 years. Right now my fiancee is seriously thinking about leaving this job.

However, we have just found out she is 7 weeks pregnant . If she was to leave her current job and take another part time job with similar hours, how would this affect her maternity pay?

We have checked the .Gov site and this states she MAY get maternity if she has worked 26 full or part weeks from Feb 2014 to March 2015. We put into the form on the .Gov site that she earns around £100 per week. It is not really clear regarding part time workers and was wondering if someone with more knowledge or experience than us could help?

Many thanks,

Ben & Claire

bookie01

Blondebubbles, thanks for your swift and informative reply. It looks like Maternity Allowance will be the one she gets then.

At least now she knows that if she leaves her current job for a new one it won't affect any maternity payments. Her current employer won't have anything in place. They won't even let you have holidays if you can't persuade someone to cover your time off!! Then you lose the days if you don't take them! I suppose that's the trouble with working for some small companies.

Thanks for your help.

Ben & Claire

bookie01

I think the SMP and maternity allowance work out roughly the same. One week she does 17.5 hours, the other week is 16 hours. Although she will every now and again do extra hours to cover sickness and holidays. Her employer is not very understanding or considerate. She works as a receptionist behind a desk, she used to have a chair but has now been told she must stand all day. She has asked for a chair as it is hurting her back but was just laughed at! I don't think the stress of being there will do her any good so I was kind of hoping she may be able to get a part time temporary job? I thought that might be easier with being pregnant.