Maternity Pay

pokerpodge2005

Hi All


I am asking for advice on maternity pay for my partner, we are due to have a baby boy on the 30th april 2018 and my partner has been with her company for a year or so now, i know maternity can go off the AWE from the qualifying 15th week, but can also be the 8 weeks leading to maternity leave.


Now the problem im having is that the gove website states that maternity is 140 ish or 90% of earnings which ever is the lower, but there is a threshold of 113PW LEL, but my girlfriend has been earning £270 a month (67 a week) since January and also this month being on 0 contract hours work.


can anyone advise me what maternity pay we would be entitled to if the AWE (average Weekly Earnings) goes under the LEL (Lower earnings Level NI) threshold of 113 P/W, as i am struggling to find advice as what happens in this situation.


In December my girlfriend was just about earning LEL 452 a month for 12 months some months maybe slightly more, but the last 2 month she has only been earning £270 and im guessing this wage will be consistent until mid April when maternity leave starts as my girlfriends work state they have no hours available.


Kind Regards


Gary

bigbill

If she does not qualify for statutory pay from the employer she will get maternity allowance from the DWP which might be more than statutory anyways.

Darksparkle

bigbill wrote: »

If she does not qualify for statutory pay from the employer she will get maternity allowance from the DWP which might be more than statutory anyways.

How would it be more than SMP?

chrisbur

Darksparkle wrote: »

How would it be more than SMP?

SMP is calculated over a fixed period (roughly the 8 weeks ending in the qualifying week) so lower than normal earnings falling in this period will lower the SMP.
Maternity allowance is calculated using 13 weeks during a longer period and you can choose the 13 weeks giving the opportunity to get a better average earnings figure if earnings vary. This will probably benefit the OP.

Also there is a possibility of tax being less if on MA as this is non-taxable. So an employee who pays some tax but gets MA rather than SMP will pay less tax. From figures given probably not going to apply in this case.

bigbill

Plus Mat Allow is ignored in full for tax credits when Statutory maternity only has the first £100 ignored.