Maternity allowance when is it paid

You are also entitled to receive SMP in cash. SMP cannot be replaced by other benefits such as board and lodging or goods and services. SMP can be offset against contractual remuneration such as contractual maternity pay but it cannot be offset against other benefits that you are entitled to during your maternity leave.

If you take any weeks of unpaid maternity leave you can get class 3 NI credits if you are claiming Child Benefit. Class 3 NI credits count for pension purposes but not for entitlement to contribution-based benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance. You can get further advice from Maternity Action if you are refused contributory benefits because of a period of unpaid maternity leave. Tax and National Insurance are not deducted from MA.

MA is not treated as earnings for calculating future entitlement to SMP, should you become pregnant again during or shortly after your present maternity leave. If you take any unpaid maternity leave you can get class 3 NI credits if you are claiming Child Benefit.

This applies to each employer that is providing you with maternity leave and pay. You should ask your employer to confirm how much you will be paid for KIT days and whether your employer will offset your SMP against the contractual pay or whether you will be paid SMP as well as your normal daily rate.

Once you have worked for ten KIT days, you will lose your SMP for any week in which you do any work, even if you only work for part of the week or for one day.

For more information, see Keeping in touch during leave. Yes, if you have two or more employers, you can claim SMP from each of them providing you satisfy the qualifying conditions for each job, see above for qualifying conditions.

You need to give notice to each employer or agency by the 15 th week before your baby is due, stating the date you want to start your maternity leave and asking them to work out if you can get SMP. Each employer will need to see your original MATB1 maternity certificate. If you qualify for SMP from two or more employers , you can take your maternity leave and SMP at different times for each job, for example, if you want to work closer to the birth in one job or go back to work earlier.

You can also work for up to ten keeping in touch KIT days for one or more of your employers, if you wish to, and keep your SMP. Your KIT days apply to each job separately. SMP in your other job is not affected. I have two jobs but only get SMP from one job. What happens if I work during my SMP period? If you were employed in both jobs in the 15 th week before your baby is due and you do some work for employer B who is not paying you SMP , it will not affect your SMP and you can work for employer B either before or after the birth.

You can take your maternity leave and SMP at different times for each job, for example, if you want to work closer to the birth in one job or go back to work earlier. If you were not employed by employer B in the 15 th week before your baby is due and you do some work for employer B who is not paying you SMP , you can work for employer B before the birth and keep your SMP but if you so some work for employer B after the birth your SMP from employer A must stop.

For more information, see Rights for parents with more than one job. You can start work for a new employer and still receive SMP from your old employer before the birth regardless of whether you were employed by the new employer in the 15 th week before baby was due. Once your baby has been born you cannot continue to get SMP from your old employer if you do some work for a new employer, unless you were employed by the new employer in the 15 th week before your baby was due. If you do some work after the birth for a new employer who did not employ you in the 15 th week before your baby was due, you must tell your old employer to stop paying your SMP.

If you were paid your SMP in a lump sum, you must return any overpayment to your old employer. I do agency work as well as my main job. I can only get SMP from my main job.

Can I continue to do some shifts through the agency during my SMP period? The same rules apply as for the questions above and it depends whether you were registered with the agency in the 15 th week before your baby is due and have evidence that you already did some work for the agency.

If you were registered with the agency in the 15 th week before your baby was due you are entitled to take on agency work both before and after the birth and it will not affect your SMP from your main job. You will need to notify your employer to stop paying SMP once you start agency work as it will be regarded as a new job. Providing you are registered as self-employed and you pay your own tax and Class 2 national insurance contributions, any self-employed work that is not subject to Class 1 National Insurance contributions does not affect any SMP that you receive from another job.

This means that you can do self-employed work before or after the birth and you can start self-employment after the birth without losing your SMP. If you start a new job before the end of your 39 week maternity pay period count forward 39 weeks from the date your SMP started , you will need to repay any SMP that you owe and you should talk to your old employer to arrange the repayment.

For information on other benefits you may be able to claim and how maternity pay and lump sum payments are taken into account when you are claiming benefits, see: Money for Parents and Babies. If your baby is born early, your maternity leave and SMP or MA will start on the day after the birth. For more information, see Premature births — rights to maternity leave and pay. You are entitled to maternity leave and SMP or MA if your baby is stillborn the date your baby was delivered after the end of the 24 th week of pregnancy.

This is calculated as being in or after the 16 th week before the week your baby was due. If your baby is born alive but does not survive, you continue to be entitled to full maternity leave and SMP or MA, if you meet the qualifying conditions, regardless of how long your baby lived or when your baby was born. For more information see Miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death — rights to time off and pay for parents.

You can still get SMP if you were employed in all or part of the 15 th week before your baby is due and you meet the qualifying conditions for SMP. You are entitled to receive SMP for the full 39 weeks once you have qualified for it. A contractual redundancy payment is not subject to tax and National Insurance contributions and cannot be offset against your SMP.

Any settlement agreement that you are asked to sign must state:. If the settlement agreement does not specify the amount of SMP payable, you would be entitled to ask your employer to pay any outstanding SMP.

Your employer can offset your SMP against any other contractual remuneration payable e. SMP cannot be offset against statutory redundancy pay. In some cases, your employer may make a payment in lieu of notice but they can only do this if it is stated in your contract.

Your employer cannot offset SMP against a payment in lieu of notice. If you were dismissed, made redundant or your contract ended before the 15 th week before your baby was due , you will not qualify for SMP but you may qualify for Maternity Allowance from the JobCentre Plus. If your employer dismissed you, made you redundant or did not renew your fixed-term contract in order to avoid paying SMP, you can ask HMRC for a formal decision.

You are entitled to written reasons for the dismissal. For more information, see Pregnancy Discrimination. For more information on redundancy, see Redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave. There is a time limit of 3 months less one day from the date of the act you are complaining about if you are thinking of making a tribunal claim. For more information, see Dealing with problems at work. Can I still get occupational maternity pay if I am dismissed, made redundant or a fixed-term contract ends?

If you get occupational maternity pay from your employer which tops up your SMP e. You are still entitled to your SMP for 39 weeks once you have qualified for it even if your employment ends. My employer provides occupational maternity pay.

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Work All Work guidance. Tool Budget Planner. We use cookies to improve your experience of our website. You can find out more or opt-out from some cookies. Your average pay includes any sick pay, holiday pay, back pay, bonuses, and statutory maternity pay from a previous pregnancy.

If it increases while you're getting statutory maternity pay, you'll get the new, higher amount from the date of the change. Your maternity pay starts on the same day as your maternity leave. If you don't get maternity leave your maternity pay starts the day after you have your baby. Your maternity pay could start sooner if you get sick in the 4 weeks before your baby's due. Statutory maternity pay can last 39 weeks, but it will end sooner if you go back to work before then.

Part of your statutory maternity pay is based on your average pay. This is most likely to matter if your pay varies, for example if you work for an agency or do shifts.

Your employer bases your average pay on roughly 8 weeks leading up to the 15th week before your due date. In this time you could think about:. To check the exact dates when your average pay is worked out, or to get other help with maternity pay, contact your nearest Citizens Advice. UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

You can change your cookie settings at any time. Use the maternity entitlement calculator to work out how much you could get. You can get Maternity Allowance for up to 39 weeks. This means if you take the full 52 weeks Statutory Maternity Leave, your final 13 weeks will be unpaid. All benefits, pensions and allowances are usually paid straight into your bank, building society or credit union account.

The benefit cap limits the total amount of benefit you can get.