Maternity pay query

Lennylegs

Hi
Just wondering if someone can cast their eyes over this and advise please?

Here's the facts:
Monthly paid - ie 31/5/15
Baby due in May.
Average weekly earnings period is therefore Dec & Jan pay (was earning 42.5k)
Payrise wef 1/4/15 to 45k.
Last day of work Weds 13 May
First day of maternity pay Thurs 14 May
Entitled to 6 weeks at 90% then 33 weeks SMP (no contractual).

So May's payslip has come through with less than I expected, I was expecting (roughly depending on whether you use monthly or daily rate):

13/31 days x 3,750 or 9 normal working days x 173.07
plus
18/31 days x 3,750 x 90% or 12 days x 173.07 x 90%

The first normal part of my payslip is fine, the maternity bit though is different due to two things:

1) it's calculated on my pre-payrise pay, i thought if you had a payrise then the smp had to be re-calculated using your new pay?

2) I've been paid two weeks (ie 10 days) for 18th - 29th, and been sent a calender clearly showing no pay for thurs 14th / friday 15th - I think they've made a mistake and paid two whole weeks but mean its from 14 - 27 as I can see maternity pay can be paid in full weeks or part weeks but surely if Im paid monthly to the end of the month usually and all the other employees are paid to the end of the momth they can't just change it now i'm on maternity? or even worse just not pay me for my first two days of maternity? (correct notice etc given - not in doubt at all)

Just to clarify I don't think anything would have been done on purpose & any difference would be a genuine error or misunderstanding on my part

Any advice gratefully received, thank you

clairec79

I thought maternity pay had to start on a Sunday

Savvy_Sue

I don't know, but my colleague who started m/l in April received 1 week's SMP then and has 5 weeks' worth in May, I'm guessing because the last week which started in April ended in May.

So she had less in April than she might have expected, because not paid at all for the last four days, and more in May because she's had the last four days of April and all of May included.

Does that make any sense of your situation?

tizerbelle

blondebubbles wrote: »

Your pay rise was after this so wouldnt be included.

Actually that is incorrect. If a pay rise is/would be awarded at any time between the start of the relevant pay period (the period used to calculate SMP) and the end of the maternity leave period, then the employer has to recalculate the average weekly earnings as if it was increased at the start of the relevant period and adjust the payments they make accordingly.

OP, the best thing to do in the first instance is to contact your employer and ask how they arrived at the calculation for this months wages. It might be that they are going to be paying monthly but only for full weeks (not the way we'd do it) and next month you'll get the extra week or it could be an error and they'll resolve it - either way, you need to discuss it with them.

Suewre

clairec79 wrote: »

I thought maternity pay had to start on a Sunday

I am not sure when it changed, but it was at least 8 years ago. SMP can start on any day of the week.

chrisbur

Current information regarding SMP seems to me to have been over-simplified. The old employers guide E15 was excellent but is no longer issued. The following link is to the last issue of the E15 and this gives full details on page 51 regarding pay rises that occur between start of the 8 week period and the end of the maternity leave.
http://uk.practicallaw.com/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1247712443571&ssbinary=true

If this is a regular annual pay increase the OP could well be due another re-calculation.

Archive details of the Alabaster case can be seen here.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/alabaster.htm

Lennylegs

Hi
Thank you for the replies, set out my queries to my employer & found link re payrises as well & they have now re-worked my pay taking into account my new wage in the average weekly earnings period. Also whilst they had marked off 14th/15th unpaid they actually meant I'd only been paid to 27th in full weeks but they have adjusted to pay me to the end of the month in line with everyone else/as per usual - it sounds like a case of accidently clicking the button to pay only in full weeks rather than to my usual pay day - phew! Was a bit worried for a minute there!
(for anyone else that has queries the link to the calculator above on the gov website is great, won't do payrises but may shed light on figures for maternity pay - both myself and the company now have a printout of what smp I will get from here on in month by month which will make budgeting much easier!)

Thank you again for your time