NI17A - A guide to Maternity Benefits
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
When SMP is paid
Unless your baby is born earlier you cannot get any SMP until 11 weeks before the week your baby is due. But if you remain employed there is flexibility as to exactly when the payments start, and you can chose the date. There are some circumstances when SMP must start (see Changes that will affect the start of your SMP).
Maternity Pay Period
Your Maternity Pay Period is determined by the date your baby is due, not by the date your baby is actually born.
SMP can be paid for up to 39 weeks. This is called the Maternity Pay Period or MPP. You can get SMP from 11 weeks before the week in which your baby is due, but only if you stop work before then.
If you continue to be employed by your employer you can chose the day you want your SMP to start. It will start then provided you have stopped work in accordance with the notice you gave to your employer. Your MPP and leave will start sooner in the special circumstances described below.
Changes that will affect the start of your SMP
The start date of SMP will change if:
- your baby is born before the date you notified (or before you have a notified date) your MPP will begin the day following the birth or
- you are absent from work wholly or partly because of your pregnancy but before the date you notified (or before you have a notified date) and this absence occurs in the 4 weeks running up to the week your baby is due. If this happens your MPP will begin the day following the day you are first absent from work because of your pregnancy in those four weeks.
Example – A woman works part of the day on Tuesday 3 June 2008 but goes home early because of an illness due to her pregnancy. She does not come into work on Wednesday 4 June for the same reason. Her MPP will start on Thursday 5 June 2008. If she phoned in sick on Wednesday 4 June 2008 the MPP will also start on Thursday 5 June 2008.
But if you do not think that your absence is wholly or partly because of your pregnancy, ask your employer to reconsider their decision. If you are still dissatisfied you should contact the HM Revenue & Customs Statutory Payments Disputes Team on 0191 2255221.
To get SMP, you must be employed – but not necessarily have been paid or worked –during the qualifying week. If your baby is born before the qualifying week see the section on premature births.
The Maternity Pay Period can last up to 39 weeks from the day it starts.
Baby born late
If your baby is born later than the week in which it was due, and after your MPP had started, your SMP is not affected. Your MPP remains the same. However, if you are incapable of work when your MPP ends, you may be able to get SSP from your employer or Employment and Support Allowance from Jobcentre Plus.
Industrial disputes
Industrial or trade disputes have no effect on the start of the maternity pay period. If you are involved in such a dispute, you can still give your employer notice of the date your maternity leave will start. This date can be within the period of the dispute. And the notice that you have already given to your employer is not affected by a subsequent trade dispute.
More than one employer
If you have more than one employer, you may be entitled to more than one lot of SMP. Although you may want to stop work in each job at the same time, you can still go on working longer with one of them if you feel you can do so. Your MPPs with each employer would then start at different times.
More than one contract with same employer
You may also be entitled to more than one lot of SMP if you have separate contracts with the same employer. You can start your SMP at different times in relation to each contract. But if you start your MPP under contract A earlier than your MPP under contract B, then you can only work for up to 10 days under contract B before your SMP under contract A has to stop. See Keeping In Touch days.
If you leave your employment
If you leave your employment after the start of the qualifying week you can still get SMP. But:
- if you leave your employment after the start of the qualifying week but before the start of the 11th week before your EWC, your MPP will start from the 11th week before your EWC;
- if you leave your employment after the start of the 11th week before your EWC but before the date you told your employer you wanted your MPP to start, your MPP will start from the day after you leave your employment;
If you leave your employment after your MPP has started, you will still get SMP from your former employer.
National Health Service employees
If you work for a health authority at more than one hospital or unit and one (or more) of those hospitals or units become an NHS trust then you will have two or more contracts of employment.
This may mean that you will get more than one lot of SMP. It may also mean that because your earnings have been split between contracts, your average earnings under one or more of those contracts are below the lower earnings limit and you will not qualify for SMP.
There are special rules for this situation. If you were employed by a health authority when your contract was split between a health authority and a trust or between trusts, you can elect to have your contracts treated as one for SMP purposes if it would be helpful to you.
Example A – A woman earning £100 each week had her contract of employment split equally between a health authority and a Trust. She then earned £50 per week under each contract. After the split, because her earnings under each contract were below the lower earnings limit, she did not qualify for SMP. She can therefore elect to have her contracts treated as one to enable her to qualify for SMP.
Example B – Before her contract split, a woman earned £150 each week and qualified for earnings related SMP of £135 per week (90 per cent of £150). After the split she earned £100 under one contract and £50 under the other. Earnings related SMP of £90 (90 per cent of £100) would be payable on the bigger contract and no SMP would be payable under the other. Electing to have her contracts treated as one would mean that she would get 90 per cent of £150 again for the first 6 weeks of her maternity pay period, followed by standard rate SMP of £123.06 for the remaining 33 weeks of her MPP.
If you want to elect to have your contracts treated as one, you should tell each of your employers about your election at least 28 days before the date you intend to stop work to have the baby.
Within 28 days of telling your employers about your election you should give each of your employers the following information:
- the name and address of each employer
- the date you started working for each employer
- details of your earnings from each employer for at least 8 weeks up to and including the qualifying week (how average weekly earnings are worked out). If you cannot give this information within the 28 day time limit, you must do so as soon as you can.
