maternity leave and holiday pay?

pamelab21

Hi all

Not expecting yet but budgeting and not sure how this works? Some companies could be different or maybe they are all the same. Can't really approach my work as work in a small office (branch of a large company) and don't really want male boss knowing our life plans at the moment!
Anyway, my point/question being, if I get 4 weeks paid holiday a year and say go off on maternity leave mid year, I know I would be entitled to 90% of my salary for 6 weeks and is it then 39 weeks SMP after this 6 weeks? So I can really take 45 weeks until the money stops Also if I have 4 weeks holiday can this be added to the start of the maternity leave, so I can take 4 weeks holiday on full pay, 90% of wages for 6 weeks after that and then 39 weeks SMP after that, making 49 weeks?
My work have been ok in the past with me taking 3 weeks holiday all together and are quite flexible about that....

The reason I ask if not so I can stay on benefits for as long as poss but I think I am going to have to go back to work full time and would like to spend the first year at home with the baby before having to go back to work and putting the baby into a nursery. We are trying to budget and I'm not sure how it all works.

(I have been with my employer for over 5 years now)

Thanks

Nitha

I think it's at the discresion of the employer

daveyjp

You don't lose your holiday entitlement should you be on maternity (or off long term sick for that matter) leave.

It's between you and your employer and their terms of employment how you take the leave.

My daughter was born in April 2006. My wife took some leave immediately before her maternity leave started and then the two weeks after her SMP period before going back to work in January 2007.

iieee

Daveyjp is right. I'm not going back to work after maternity leave but have been told I still count as an employee and have full annual leave entitlement whilst I'm getting SMP. I was pleasantly shocked when they told me! So I am officially taking maternity leave from July but will actually leave work in June. Result.:cool:

Lillibet_2

Yep, holiday continues to accrue whilst you are on maternity leave, so you can either tag it onto the end of your mat leave or take it as payment in lieu if you don't return at the end of your mat leave.
Taking it at the beginning of your mat leave can be dicey, if babe comes early you have to legally start your mat leave the day babe arrives at the latest to qualify for it, so you immediately drop down to 90% at that point, some employers don't like you taking holiday at the start of mat leave as it complicates matters plus you might have 4 weeks entitlement over the course of any 12 month period but if you take 4 weeks at the start of the holiday year you haven't offically accrued it yet IYSWIM? Taking it at the end is very straight forward.

Good luck with your plans.

pamelab21

thanks all.
Just trying to budget things....I know that will prob go out the window, buts its nice to be prepared. My employer is normally fairly flexible so it looks like this could be an option for me.

pamelab21

Lillibet wrote: »

Yep, holiday continues to accrue whilst you are on maternity leave, so you can either tag it onto the end of your mat leave or take it as payment in lieu if you don't return at the end of your mat leave.
Taking it at the beginning of your mat leave can be dicey, if babe comes early you have to legally start your mat leave the day babe arrives at the latest to qualify for it, so you immediately drop down to 90% at that point, some employers don't like you taking holiday at the start of mat leave as it complicates matters plus you might have 4 weeks entitlement over the course of any 12 month period but if you take 4 weeks at the start of the holiday year you haven't offically accrued it yet IYSWIM? Taking it at the end is very straight forward.

Good luck with your plans.

something I did not know so thanks for that. so basically if I were to take 4 weeks hol before due date and the baby was to come 1 week early I could lose 1 weeks holiday as my 90% has to start when the baby would arrive?

one problem with that for me is my employer does not let me carry forward any holidays into the next calendar year so if for talking sake baby due in July 2009 and I don't take holidays before mat leave then I would lose those hols altogether...unless they would just pay me for them...which I doubt though....who would know it was all so complicated!

Lillibet_2

pamelab21 wrote: »

something I did not know so thanks for that. so basically if I were to take 4 weeks hol before due date and the baby was to come 1 week early I could lose 1 weeks holiday as my 90% has to start when the baby would arrive?

No, you wouldn#'t lose the holiday, you could tag it onto the end of your mat leave but it would affect your pay as you would drop from full holiday pay to 90% mat pay when you were budgeting for full pay. Whilst it is theoretically possible to use holiday at the start of mat leave this is exactly the reason why some employers don't like you to, it gets complicated!

If it is not possible to take all your holiday before babe arrives (or if babe arrives early etc) then the employer is duty bound to carry the unused/accrued holiday over to the next year (you cannot physically take 2 lots of paid leave at once!). Under my old company rules we were only allowed to carry one week over but this didn't apply when on maternity leave, you could carry all unused leave over to the next year, most employers recognize that mat leave makes it difficult for all concerend & will come to a reasonable arrangemnt with you, maybe asking you to use up accrued leave within X months of returning or something.

HTH

jackomdj

Also something to think about is bank holidays - I think it is at the discression of the company but I accrued them whilst on maternity leave & got paid for them.

Janepig

jackomdj wrote: »

Also something to think about is bank holidays - I think it is at the discression of the company but I accrued them whilst on maternity leave & got paid for them.

So did I - I think about 5 bank holidays fell while I was on maternity leave with DS so I tagged them on to the end of my maternity leave. I'd also booked leave before the date my maternity leave was due to start but in the event DS turned up five weeks early while I was still in work (although not in work thankfully :rolleyes:) so that wasn't taken and again tagged on to the end of my maternity leave.

This is where it gets confusing though. Because where I work they don't allow more than 15 days leave at one time without the permission of the chief officer, I had to take the leave I had owing in blocks of less than that, interspersed with my bank holiday days that were owing, which meant I didn't have to ask permission. My leave year starts in September and as I was due back off maternity leave in June I had to tag all my leave on at the end of that as I wouldn't have been able to carry it over past the end of August.

Jxx

izoomzoom

I just wanted to point out that you get 39 weeks in total of maternity pay. The first 6 weeks is at 90% bla bla, but then the next 33 weeks are at SMP.

Some companies give additional maternity pay too (like maybe 100% for 6w or (in my case) 12w), but there are normally 'terms' attached - like you have to return, and work for x period (or you have to pay it back).

Re holiday pay, say you went on to have baby 1/2 through year, you must take all your holiday entitlement for that WHOLE year BEFORE you start maternity leave (unless co allows you to carry it forward) as maternity pay HAS to start day after baby is born.

What surprised me to learn today too, is that I took all of last year's holiday before baby was born late last year, and because I plan on being off work for close to a year - I will have earned another whole year's holiday (5 weeks at 100% pay :j ).