Maternity leave is all about dates - how do I make sense of them?
There are five related dates that are involved in determining entitlement to maternity leave and SMP and in ensuring that certain actions are taken at the right time. There is a clear connection between them but, if they seem to be too complicated, HMRC's Employer's Help Book E15 Pay and time off work for parents includes a useful set of tables.
The five dates are:
- the week in which the baby is expected, the "expected week of childbirth"
- the qualifying week, the week in which the woman's entitlement to SMP is determined
- the latest date by which the woman must have been employed in order to meet the length of service requirement
- the earliest date by which the woman may start her maternity leave
- the date from which a woman must start her maternity leave if she is absent from work due to pregnancy or confinement.
These same five dates are also relevant for paternity leave and SPP in connection with a birth.
How these dates relate to each other is explained using the following calendar. For entitlement purposes, a week starting on a Sunday is always used. The dates that are used in the example are highlighted. The calendar does not relate to a particular year.
Date 1 - Expected week of childbirth (EWC): The Sunday to Saturday week during which the doctor or midwife estimates the baby will be born, as indicated on the MAT B1 Maternity Certificate. All of the other dates used for SMP purposes are derived from the date on which the baby is expected, not the date on which the baby is actually born.
In our example, a MAT B1 Certificate shows that the baby is due on 15 November. The EWC is the week starting 12 November and ending 18 November.
Date 2 - Qualifying week (QW): The Sunday to Saturday week that falls fifteen weeks before the EWC. More precisely, it is the week that starts on the Sunday that falls fifteen weeks earlier than the Sunday of the EWC. It is the woman's circumstances in the qualifying week that determine whether or not she is entitled to SMP.
In our example, the QW is the fifteenth week before the EWC, the week that starts on 30 July.
Date 3 - Latest employment start date: To qualify for additional maternity leave and SMP, the woman must have been continuously employed for not less than 26 weeks, up to and including the QW. To have 26 weeks' continuous employment, she must have been employed with her current employer
- for at least one day in the qualifying week,
- during the 24 weeks before that, and
- for at least one day in the week before that.
Therefore, in date terms, she must have been employed at some time in the week that started on the Sunday that falls 25 weeks earlier than the Sunday of the QW, by the Saturday of that week at the latest.
The 25th week before the QW is the same as the 40th week before the EWC. The whole date structure of the SMP scheme is based on the presumption that the woman was already in the employment at the time or just before the baby was conceived.
In our example, the latest date by which her employment must have started is the Saturday of the week that started on 5 February. Provided the employee was employed by the Saturday of that week, 11 February, she meets the continuous employment condition.
Date 4 - Earliest date to start maternity leave: The woman may choose to start her maternity leave not earlier than the start of the eleventh week before the EWC, i.e. the Sunday that falls eleven weeks earlier than the Sunday at the start of the EWC.
In our example, the earliest date from which the woman may start her leave is 27 August, i.e. the start of the eleventh week before the EWC.
Date 5 - Compulsory start of maternity leave: The woman must start her leave if she is "absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement" on or after the Sunday of the fourth week before her EWC. More precisely, this is the Sunday that falls four weeks earlier than the Sunday at the start of the EWC.
In our example, if the woman is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy on 15 October, she must start her leave during that week.
Using a calendar to find the dates
All of the five dates can be found using a calendar once the date on which the baby is due is known. The procedure is straightforward:
- Find the day on which the baby is due and find the Sunday at the start of that week. If the date the baby is due is a Sunday, that is the Sunday to use. All of the other dates are identified by counting backwards from this Sunday.
- Count back 4 Sundays. This is the earliest date from which maternity leave must start if the woman is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement.
- Count back 7 more Sundays, to the 11th Sunday. This is the earliest date on which maternity leave may start.
- Count back 4 more Sundays, to the 15th Sunday. This is the Sunday at the start of the Qualifying Week.
- Count back 25 more Sundays, to the 40th Sunday and find the date of the following Saturday. This is the latest employment start date.
Why not practice using your own calendar and then compare the results with dates given in the E15 Help Book? A calendar that shows weeks starting on Sundays is most useful. A useful calendar for this purpose is available at http://www.ampsoft.net.
The UK Payroll News is sponsored by HRD & Payroll Solutions
Discuss this news item in the PayPerShop Forum
|
