Giving birth abroad and maternity pay

dunnd999

I do apologise if this question was discussed before, but my wife and I just bumped into an interesting dilemma. Because she had such an awfull experience with the NHS during the birth of our son we have now decided that she should give birth in South Africa for our next one. My wife is now 3 months pregnant and we have both taken career breaks to temporarily move to SA in a few weeks to settle in nicely for the birth. My wife has also been granted 12 months maternity leave by her company. To be able to claim maternity pay she need to get a MAT 1 form from her doctor on week 25. Because we would not be in the country anymore and dont want to do ant flying that late in the pregnancy we have asked the doctor if he could issue it on recommendation form a South African doctor after the 25 week checkup. To cut a long story short, the doctor said that we are not allowed to claim maternity pay because she would be out of the country so long..yet we are both still employed by our respective companies over here and are both British Citizens. Is the doctor correct or is she entiteled to maternity pay by her company?

inkie

A mat B1 which is issued by either a Dr or MW (of which I am a MW), can only be issued at from 26 weeks of pregnancy. It cannot be 'post-dated'.
I would have thought that in theory the occupational element of the pay would remain unaffected (although the MAT B1 is needed to trigger mat payment with your employer - and so if you cannot get mat B1 then you may have a problem there.) Part of the mat pay is claiomed back from the state, and so again, if you are not in the county I would have thought that there would be issues there too.
Sorry I can't be of any more use.
Are you sure that there is no way for your wife to deliver in the UK? Not all of us are bad, you know!?

dunnd999

Lol..I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately my wife decided he only way we will ever have a 2nd one is if she can do a "Angelina Jolie" I have therefore been paying quite a substantial amount of money so she can have her own private doctor/room/nurse etc etc. We never expected a NHS doctor on this side are going to give use grief over our plans. We did know about only being able to get the form on 26 weeks, but during a previous conversation with a doctor it did not sound like their will be any problem if we can get our SA specialist to confirm that everything is going according to plan. The budget is going to be very tight for the few months after birth before we are ready to come back if neither of us earns a salary. All of this problems just because I thought I was doing teh sensible thing. Ps..dont get me started on the previous birth..4 days without sleep..painkillers and most of the time a doctor...and we almost lost our son in the process. Never again!

inkie

May be sidetracking, but there are ways to get what you want in the UK. Have you thought about independant miwifery - also, if the 'hotel facilities' are important to you, then what about such as the portland? Just something to think about...

Ms_Piggy_2

Don't go to the Portland! It has appalling rates of intervention.

Stay at home and get an independent midwife, the go to SA to recover. Easy!

Perhaps your wife needs to look at why she feels hr last birth was so poor and then look into how she can take control to ensure it doesn't happen again. TBH flying halfway round the worls/going private won't necessarily make it better.

dunnd999

As I mentioned before...it was a very long drawn out process. Hospital lost her notes, could not get hold of her midwife, doctor saw her the first time more than 24 hours after labour started. Baby was getting distressed, blood oxygen level dropped to critical an heartbeat dropped down to 40..and still they did not want to do a thing. Had no available pain relief and even the gas in the room did not work...and worst of all. This time around we have got the same midwife! She did not even know my wife has givin birth till 3 weeks later!
Unfortunately it is too late for me to start organizing things on this side because she's allready booked into a hospital over there. Everything is paid for and the Obstetrician's a family friend that has brought 7 Dunn babies into the world over recent years so we do trust him and are positive things will be better. As I mentioned before..I just cannot belief because of a NHS doctor's refusal to accept a foreign doctor's paperwork that we cannot claim maternity pay. If your company has allready givin you the time off and are happy with you being in a foreign country why is it such a big issue. We still keep on paying all our bills and taxes and the baby will still be a proper Brit, so what's the issue?

tinkerbell84

errrrrrr, won't the baby be a SA national if they are born there?

so not a 'proper brit'??

mum2one

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

errrrrrr, won't the baby be a SA national if they are born there?

so not a 'proper brit'??

in theory yes, but would be given or apply 4 a dual nationality passport.

dunnd999

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

errrrrrr, won't the baby be a SA national if they are born there?

so not a 'proper brit'??

Now that would be a disaster. Just imagine, the baby being born on the other side and we get back to Heathrow and he/she refused entry because we did not ge a Visa.
Fortunately it does not work like that. With both parents being British, he/she will also be, as long as we register the birth with the Home office.

anonymousie

dunnd999 wrote: »

I do apologise if this question was discussed before, but my wife and I just bumped into an interesting dilemma. Because she had such an awfull experience with the NHS during the birth of our son we have now decided that she should give birth in South Africa for our next one. My wife is now 3 months pregnant and we have both taken career breaks to temporarily move to SA in a few weeks to settle in nicely for the birth. My wife has also been granted 12 months maternity leave by her company. To be able to claim maternity pay she need to get a MAT 1 form from her doctor on week 25. Because we would not be in the country anymore and dont want to do ant flying that late in the pregnancy we have asked the doctor if he could issue it on recommendation form a South African doctor after the 25 week checkup. To cut a long story short, the doctor said that we are not allowed to claim maternity pay because she would be out of the country so long..yet we are both still employed by our respective companies over here and are both British Citizens. Is the doctor correct or is she entiteled to maternity pay by her company?

IIRC (and I can check when I am in work next) at Mat B1 require the signitory to state "I examined this lady on X date and certify that confinement is due week begining Y" or similar wording. I'm afraid there is no "get out" clause as "Dr Z examined hte lady" or anything like that.

If I am correct. then unless the signing doc is able to do the examination they are not able to sign, full stop (and to do so would be fraud). THey are not being deliberately obstructive to your plans or anything, just following what is legal.

If you feel that being out of the country doesn't exclude you from Mat pay then you need to take it up with the benefits agency as to any other evidence they will accept, and perhaps your employer directly for "special consideration" given your circumstances.

Don't beat the GP up, if it isn't legal they can't do it!

Debt_Free_Chick

I have to admit, that I think she is entitled to receive SMP even whilst out of the Country. Mat B1 is simply a form used in this country to confirm pregnancy.

Dund999 - your wife should speak to her employer about this. Page 9 of E15 the Employer's Guide (which is the 11th page of the PDF), states that "medical evidence" is required - usually Mat B1, but any document provided by a doctor/midwife giving the due date is acceptable.

Her employer should call the Helpline to see what medical evidence could be provided from SA.

HTH