advice please...

[littlesmoosh]

hey girls!
i spoke to my boss (who is hopeless at the best of times) and asked about my maternity leaving rights. he told me it was a minimum of 6 weeks before my due date and that i got 9 months off. this is fine with me. il have 4 weeks paid holiday to take so il take that so really it will be 10 months off.
when i asked about maternity pay he didnt really have a certain answer but said hes sure the company policy is something like a 3rd of my average wage.
i work in a nightclub and earn minimum wage even though i do rediculas hours. i hate my job, but obviously am stuck in it for the time being so i need to make do. i only make about £90 a week. im on a zero hour contract so my shifts can fluctuate. although normally i do a steady 3 or 4 a week. anyways. if what my boss is saying is right then that means that some weeks i could come away with just £30 when on maternity leave. i think we can all agree thats just nowhere near enough. anyways, this is the part in interested in: i heard that there was some sort of government bursary for maternity pay?? and that you can claim that? does anyone know if this is right? and how i go about this? any information and/or links would be so appreciated. starting to really panick. my otherhalf is a student and doesnt work (although now hes looking for part time work. but because of his studies he cant invest too much of himself into work). so looks like we're really going to be struggling.. xx

 

[kanga86]

I thought if u didn't earn enough u got maternity allowance rather than statutory maternity pay. 2 girls at my work only did 15hrs a week and didn't qualify for smp, but got ma instead. It's the same amount about £128 a week I think, but just a few different rules. It is worth u going on it direct gov website and looking up maternity allowance instead xx

 

[littlesmoosh]

think this is the bursary thing im going on about haha! deffo need to get me some of that! cause the pay from work is just rediculas!! thankyou xxx

 

[Pickledonions]

Yes you will be able to claim.mat allowance

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[littlesmoosh]

thankyou! just had a look into it and it said you cant claim before your 27th week of pregnancy. so still another 6 weeks to go before i can do anything anyway, so thats put my mind at ease! xx

 

[Em91]

I was told you can work right up to your due date, then 9 months paid leave and 3 month additional unpaid. Sure you can get maternity allowance tho x

 

[K80]

Get all your facts right off a website before anymore conversations with your boss cos they could do you out of a lot of your entitlements if you're not careful. I used the ACAS website I think it's called (? Braincells dying by the day with this pregnancy!) it is keeping me right because my boss had children 30 years ago and I think she thinks all the rules are still the same!!!!
Also got told that maternity rights/policies might even be changing again in April (bloody government cuts and changes) so best to keep an eye on our rights.

It's all so complicated, confusing and stressful. I honestly believed in equality for men and women til I looked at these rights and you then see how pregnant women ate flipping penalised for bringing a baby into the world. I am main earner in my household and my org don't have maternity pay plan thing so after 6 weeks at 90% pay (£1300 pounds per month) I'm down to £523 SMP until I go back to work (24 hours a week
Minimum now cos gov has changed min working hours to claim working child tax credit thingy) therefore I can only have the a couple of months with my babba. Sooooo annoying.
Sorry for rant and taking over your thread- but just want to
Emphasise how important getting all the information is as soon as poss!!!!!

 

[Em91]

Get all your facts right off a website before anymore conversations with your boss cos they could do you out of a lot of your entitlements if you're not careful. I used the ACAS website I think it's called (? Braincells dying by the day with this pregnancy!) it is keeping me right because my boss had children 30 years ago and I think she thinks all the rules are still the same!!!!
Also got told that maternity rights/policies might even be changing again in April (bloody government cuts and changes) so best to keep an eye on our rights.

It's all so complicated, confusing and stressful. I honestly believed in equality for men and women til I looked at these rights and you then see how pregnant women ate flipping penalised for bringing a baby into the world. I am main earner in my household and my org don't have maternity pay plan thing so after 6 weeks at 90% pay (£1300 pounds per month) I'm down to £523 SMP until I go back to work (24 hours a week
Minimum now cos gov has changed min working hours to claim working child tax credit thingy) therefore I can only have the a couple of months with my babba. Sooooo annoying.
Sorry for rant and taking over your thread- but just want to
Emphasise how important getting all the information is as soon as poss!!!!!

Didn't realize they had changed working hours for child tax credits. So its now over 24hrs a week? Need to look into that and check what,we will be entilted to!

 

[lyndsey_28]

yea but its 24 hours between a couple and 16 hours if ur single so if one of u works 16 hours as long as the other works 8 hours or more a week as well u will be ok tax credit wise!!

Maternity allowance is not the same amount as SMP only if you earn above the SMP rate its this much, otherwise its 90% of ur average earnings so in ur case if ur earn £90 a week MA will give you £81 a week this is what i gotta claim as i only work 16 hrs a week and will be paid around £101 a week as that is 90% of my earnings only its paid fortnightly or 4 weekly in arrears xx

 

[kanga86]

yea but its 24 hours between a couple and 16 hours if ur single so if one of u works 16 hours as long as the other works 8 hours or more a week as well u will be ok tax credit wise!!

Maternity allowance is not the same amount as SMP only if you earn above the SMP rate its this much, otherwise its 90% of ur average earnings so in ur case if ur earn £90 a week MA will give you £81 a week this is what i gotta claim as i only work 16 hrs a week and will be paid around £101 a week as that is 90% of my earnings only its paid fortnightly or 4 weekly in arrears xx

I didn't know this about MA, though it was just the same. Oops sorry for giving the wrong info glad there are people on here in the know about these things xx

 

[lyndsey_28]

yea but its 24 hours between a couple and 16 hours if ur single so if one of u works 16 hours as long as the other works 8 hours or more a week as well u will be ok tax credit wise!!

Maternity allowance is not the same amount as SMP only if you earn above the SMP rate its this much, otherwise its 90% of ur average earnings so in ur case if ur earn £90 a week MA will give you £81 a week this is what i gotta claim as i only work 16 hrs a week and will be paid around £101 a week as that is 90% of my earnings only its paid fortnightly or 4 weekly in arrears xx

I didn't know this about MA, though it was just the same. Oops sorry for giving the wrong info glad there are people on here in the know about these things xx

it kinda does work the same as SMP as they have the same rules too!! as i got paid that last time but my earnings were lower then the average SMP rate so therefore you get 90% of ur earnings all the way through!! and dont worry bout giving the wrong info u were only saying what u thought was right but just didnt want her to think she was gonna be paid more money on MA then what she currently earns although it would be nice lol xx

 

[kanga86]

It would be nice to get more money on ma than ur earnings lol. I never noticed that the change the amount as smp is less than my wages so didn't pay much attention as I knew I would be getting less money xx

 

[coruscating17]

I was going to say that you only get 90% of your pay on MA if you earn under the 128/wk or whatever it is that is the full MA, so yes you won;t get paid more on MA than you normally earn I'm afraid. I'll be taking a 75% pay cut when I go on mat leave! Argh! Not entitled to SMP as was already pregnant when I started this job so have to rely on MA. That's why I'm going to work as long as possible up to my due date...I'm aiming for 38 weeks!!
Look into if you're entitled to things like housing allowance too...I'm going to phone Citizens Advice I think to see if they can help me out as it's all very confusing! I think there are quite a few of us who will be struggling with money, but we'll get by...just got to watch the pennies very closely! x

 

[Loula]

Its all soo crazy the amounts you get. Ive looked into it and get full pay from work for the first 8 weeks then so many week after it goes down and then again, can only afford to take 9 months off but may even have to go back sooner if everything is changing x