Temporary removal from workplace – delete if not relevant. The latest Government guidance on Working Safely says: ‘Employers should ensure workplaces are safe for anyone who cannot work from home. Your local authority may also have a local welfare assistance scheme if you are having exceptional difficulties. If there are risks, your employer must take reasonable action to remove the risks by altering your working conditions or hours of work; by providing suitable alternative work on the same terms and conditions; or by suspending you on full pay (if there is no suitable alternative work).’. 8. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Provide suspension on full pay for as long as the risk remains up to 4 weeks before my expected week of childbirth. Government guidance on this issue is not clear, but the NEU is clear that teachers and support staff should not be disadvantaged for following Government guidance on controlling the Covid-19 virus. Employers are responsible for undertaking health and safety risks assessments. by email, that you are pregnant and your employer must conduct a risk assessment. the same month’s earning from the previous year. You remain employed by your employer during your furlough so any weeks of furlough will count as continuous employment and will still help you qualify for SMP. COVID Tax Tip 2020-63 , May 28, 2020 Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, employers can grant paid leave for an employee to take care of their health needs related to COVID -19 or to care for their family members. Your employer can get advice on paying and reclaiming SMP from the HMRC Employers Helpline on 0300 200 3200. To qualify for Maternity Allowance you need to show that you have been employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due. more information on benefits and help available during the crisis on our website here. When maternity leave can start early If you’re absent from work. If you are starting your maternity leave on or after 25th April 2020, your employer must use your normal earnings when working out your SMP, not your furlough pay. Advice on pregnancy and maternity and childcare rights during the Covid-19 crisis. Yes, if you meet the qualifying conditions for SMP your employer must pay it through the payroll in the normal way. This responsibility is laid out in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. All employers have a duty to assess workplace risks and this must specifically include risks to pregnant women and new mothers at whatever stage of pregnancy e.g. If you’ve worked in the same placement for some time and it’s likely you would have continued to work there until you stopped work to have your baby, your agency must suspend you until then if the risk remains. If you are requesting a maternity suspension on full pay because your employer is unable to provide safe work during your pregnancy. You can stop work before then providing you have already met the qualifying conditions – been registered as self-employed and completed at least 26 weeks of employment and/or self-employment in the 66 weeks before your baby is due. If I’m off work on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or on furlough, does that count towards the 26 weeks continuous service for qualifying for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)? I’m not able to work from home but it’s not possible to practise social distancing at my workplace. This can mean that if you have periods of sick pay or unpaid leave during your qualifying period it will affect your average earnings and this can mean that your SMP will be lower. Universal Credit is a means-tested benefit and depends on household income. Office telephone: 020 7253 2288 1. No, unfortunately KIT days are by agreement between employer and employee. Together, we can shape the future of education. Since the start of the pandemic pregnant women have been recognised as being at higher risk of serious illness from Covid-19 and are classed as clinically vulnerable under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations 2020. See the questions in this section on health and safety protection and a model letter that you can use to write to your employer. If you have booked to take annual leave before your maternity leave, you can continue to take your annual leave and you must be paid in full as annual leave is a statutory (legal) right. However, if your employer has become insolvent, you can apply to the Insolvency Service for payment instead. 3. You should bear in mind that if you have returned to work or given notice to end your maternity leave, you cannot go back onto maternity leave. The Coronavirus Restrictions Regulations 2020 state that Covid-19 is a serious and imminent danger to public health and that pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions are classed as vulnerable. Do I have to give 8 weeks’ notice to return to work early from maternity leave in order be placed on furlough? You can get further information on our website. Entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay is based on your average weekly earnings in the 8 weeks or 2 months before the 15th week before your baby is due, this is when you are about 18 to 26 weeks pregnant. This is when you are approximately 18 to 26 weeks’ pregnant. To work this out find the Sunday immediately before your due date (or the date you are due if that’s a Sunday) and count back 11 weeks. You can be placed on the flexible furlough scheme if there is less work because of Covid-19 and it is not because of your pregnancy. 1. If you are subsequently dismissed or disciplined or you are not paid you can bring a claim in an employment tribunal under s.44 or s.100 Employment Rights Act 1996. If you are not being offered your old job back, see our information sheet. No, you are only entitled to SSP if you are signed off sick by your midwife/GP or you are self-isolating because you or a family member has coronavirus symptoms. You can ask for help completing this letter from your union, your local Citizens Advice Bureau, local charities and from Maternity Action’s advice services. Yes, you can still claim Child Benefit even if you are not able to register your baby’s birth because the Registry Office is closed. You will need to complete an ET1 claim form within one month of the Early Conciliation certificate being issued in order to start an employment tribunal claim: https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunals, If you are in a union you should contact your union’s legal department to ask for advice. If you are not able to return to work earlier than planned you should explain your circumstances to your employer, for example, if you have no childcare in place before your planned return. 9. If you have left work temporarily because of a serious and imminent risk to your health from a health and safety breach. Your employer must carry out a risk assessment to consider the risks of infection from Covid-19 and specific risks in relation to pregnancy. 6. These include getting redundancy pay, a paid notice period and any money your employer owes you (for example, unpaid wages). Check out BabyCenter's Maternity Leave Checklist for information about taking time off for pregnancy and childbirth. 28 weeks is not in the last four weeks of pregnancy. Your SMP should be paid through the payroll in the normal way and your employer is reimbursed for your SMP (including the first 6 weeks at 90%) by HM Revenue and Customs, see below on help for employers. If you are sent home on unpaid leave or sick leave, you may have a claim for unlawful deduction of wages and/or pregnancy discrimination. You would need evidence that the reason for the dismissal or unfair treatment was because of your pregnancy. If you are paid monthly, you need to look at your average weekly earnings in the 2 months before the 15th week before your baby is due. The amount of Universal Credit you get can vary each month depending on yours and your partner’s income (if you are in a couple). If you’re still in your maternity leave period (paid or unpaid maternity leave) you and your employer can agree up to ten keeping-in-touch days to enable you to do some work while remaining on maternity leave. FAQs: Covid-19 – rights and benefits during pregnancy and maternity leave, Resigning during pregnancy and maternity leave, Pregnant during maternity leave (expecting again), Miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death, Redundancy during pregnancy, maternity and parental leave, Asking to change your working hours or go part-time, Adoption leave and pay – rights for parents, Health and safety, sickness and breastfeeding, Health and safety during pregnancy/on return to work, Continuing to breastfeed when you return to work, Sickness during pregnancy and maternity leave, and on return to work, Postnatal depression/depression in pregnancy, Self-employed, agency and zero-hours work, Rights for parents with more than one job, ‘Ordinarily Resident’ in the UK: entitlement to NHS maternity care in England, Information-sharing between the NHS and Home Office in England. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection. visit our main Covid Maternity FAQs page. This may protect you against dismissal or unfair treatment if you are unable to work for childcare reasons: you have been employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth. In order to be furloughed from 1st November 2020, you will need to have been on your employer’s payroll on or before 30th October 2020. Yes, Government guidance from 2nd December says that in order to control the virus everyone who can work from home should do so. If you are unable to work during the pandemic for health and safety reasons, your employer should suspend you on full pay if there is no suitable alternative work available. This can be anytime from 11 weeks before your baby is due, up to the birth. There will be a legal challenge to the treatment of Maternity Allowance as income under the Universal Credit regulations which is due to be heard at the end of June 2020. The risk assessment may need to be reviewed at this point in order to consider what action needs to be taken to protect my health and safety at work in the last trimester: Take reasonable action to remove the risks by altering working conditions or hours of work, Provide suitable alternative work, without loss of pay, or. If your employer is not responding, you can contact the HMRC Employees Helpline on 0300 200 3500 or the HMRC Statutory Payments Disputes team on 0300 0560 630 or 0300 322 9422 if your employer is refusing to pay your SMP or has gone out of business and can no longer pay it. If you are self-employed, see the FAQs on maternity pay and benefits for self-employed women. See the section on benefits. If it is not reasonably practicable for you to return to the same job, your employer must offer you a suitable alternative job on very similar terms and conditions. In order to qualify for SMP you must be employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before your baby is due. https://www.acas.org.uk/early-conciliation, see Health and safety during pregnancy and on return to work, https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/what-youll-get, https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-to-claim, https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/resources/test-case/maternity-allowance-and-universal-credit, https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/coronavirus-and-your-money, Child Benefit Claim form CH2 found online, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/child-benefit, https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-allowance-claim-form, more information on Maternity Allowance for self-employed women here, https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-guidance-for-employees, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme, https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/maternity-and-parental-rights-for-self-employed-parents/, https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/maternity-pay-questions/, https://maternityaction.org.uk/2020/04/support-for-and-advice-to-pregnant-women-new-parents-during-covid-19/, https://www.gov.uk/maternity-paternity-calculator, https://www.gov.uk/recover-statutory-payments, https://www.gov.uk/recover-statutory-payments/if-you-cant-afford-to-make-payments, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme. Your employer must ensure you are able to work from home wherever possible and, if there is no work available that you can do from home, they must suspend you on full pay if you are unable to work safely. For full time and part time salaried employees, the employee’s actual salary before tax, on or before 19 March 2020 should be used to calculate the 80%. You can still qualify for SMP if you are employed up to all or part of your qualifying week – this is the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth. You can be furloughed if you are not working at all or you can have ‘flexible furlough’ if you work part-time and are furloughed part-time. If you have other employment during your 66 week test period you can also include those weeks of employment to help qualify for Maternity Allowance. Can I claim any other help with paying my rent during this period? Employers should identify the hours the employee worked using pay records, time sheets and other records which show time worked. For more information on rights for agency workers see our information sheet. For more information on redundancy see Redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave. Refusing full paid leave in such cases, with circumstances outside of the parent's control, could also raise a potential sex discrimination claim, as the majority of carers are women. As you have met the qualifying conditions for SMP you can still take your maternity leave and SMP on the date in your notice or you can change your start date as above. However, if you’re still working but you’ve agreed a pay cut to help your employer’s business, this may affect the calculation of your SMP if your wages are reduced in the relevant period above. My agency have told me to start my maternity leave/pay early – is that right? In some cases, there may be a ‘payment in lieu of notice period’ in your contract and your employment will end immediately. You can choose to start your MA from the 11, have average annual profits of £50,000 or less. If your company is a private UK company, the administrators can access the furlough scheme to pay wages to staff that would otherwise be made redundant. Try the A-Z, Coronavirus: face masks and PPE in schools and colleges, Coronavirus: rota systems in secondary schools and colleges, Coronavirus: pregnancy, maternity and childcare. 10. You should send in payslips with your highest earnings. If you have to leave your work or take other action because of a serious or imminent risk to your health and safety, e.g. The risk assessment must be kept under review throughout your pregnancy and as Government guidance changes. You can find more information on asking for part-time work or other changes to your days/hours of work here. For more information on Parental Leave, see: https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave. Alternatively, you and your employer can agree to take your annual leave at another time. Furlough pay will be subject to tax and National Insurance as normal. I receive Working Tax Credit but I have been put on furlough – will this affect my tax credit claim? ], Latest Government guidance on health and safety during the pandemic. If you are on SSP during part of the 8 week/2 month period, your average earnings will be lower which may reduce the amount of SMP you get. The second grant will be worth 70% of your average monthly trading profits (calculated in the same way as above). If you have not submitted your 2018/19 tax return, you have until 23 April 2020 to submit it in order to qualify for the grant. Yes, you can telephone the MA Claims department on 0800 169 0283 and ask to move the start of your Maternity Allowance forward. I do agency work and I have been sent home by my employer on health and safety grounds as I work with the public. Many employers do not give notice of the end of your maternity leave and may not know about this regulation. The Self-employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be payable if you meet the following conditions: Taking maternity leave does not count as a break in trading activity or mean that you have stopped trading as long as you intend to resume trading after your Maternity Allowance period. Will this affect my Maternity Allowance? This includes risks of exposure to the coronavirus Covid-19 as there is a higher risk of exposure in my work than outside the workplace. In some cases this can be based on wages on 28th Feb if this was worked out before HMRC changed the date. Are there any additional protections for breastfeeding mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic? If any part of this model letter is not relevant to your situation you can delete it. In these circumstances you should give your employer as much notice as you can. If you are not currently working, your Universal Credit entitlement will be based solely on your partner’s income. ], [This section was last updated on 12 June 2020.]. 4. If you are not able to give 28 days’ notice you should give notice as soon as you reasonably can. Media enquiries: 07727 929683 I had arranged Keeping in touch (KIT) days during the last few months of my maternity leave but my employer has now cancelled them. This is the same if you are on Statutory Sick Pay in the relevant period as it can affect your SMP. You must be able to confirm to HMRC that your business has been affected by coronavirus. My maternity leave has just ended and I’m on annual leave that was arranged some time ago. 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