Maternity Leave and Maternity Allowance
Westminster Homecare comply with Statutory Directives ensuring that employees receive the correct leave and pay allowances to which they are entitled.
From April 2007, new legislation has been introduced regarding Statuary Maternity Pay (SMP).
We have broken down the key changes below:
The changes apply to pregnant mothers whose babies are due on or after 1 April 2007.
Pregnant employees who meet qualifying conditions based on their length of service and average earnings and give the correct notice, are entitled to receive from their employers up to 39 weeks’ SMP.
The rate of SMP is 90% of a woman’s average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, followed by the lesser of a flat rate of – £108.85 a week (being the current proposed amount) – or 90% of her average weekly earnings for the remaining 33 weeks. The flat rate is subject to review every April.
Women who are not entitled to SMP but meet qualifying conditions based on their recent employment and earnings records may claim up to 39 weeks’ Maternity Allowance (MA) from their JobCentre Plus office.
Women may, by agreement with their employer, undertake up to 10 days’ work under their contract of employment without losing any SMP or MA.’
Under the terms of your employment with Westminster Homecare you have at this stage met the qualifying conditions of the length of service and therefore you will be entitled to the SMP as quoted above. Your entitlement is subject to you providing us with the required notice of when you to start to be paid SMP (where possible 28 days) and that you provide us with evidence of when your baby is due to be born (usually a form MAT B1) which must be submitted within 21 days from the start of your Pay Period.
We thoroughly recommend you visit the Department of Works and Pensions website for more detailed information and how to make you claim: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/statutory_maternity_pay.asp