New Statutory Maternity Pay Arrangements

1st April 2007 heralded changes to the Maternity Pay Period. These changes apply where a baby is due on or after 1st April 2007.

As before the criterion remains the due date – the actual birth date is of no consequence. Nowadays it is recognised that women can give birth to live babies at 22 weeks. Therefore, in the case of a baby due on April 1st 2007 but actually born in late November 2006, the new arrangements apply from that date.

Key Changes

the Maternity Pay Period (MPP) has been extended from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.

the women chooses which day of the week the MPP begins – previously MPP kicked in on the Sunday after the woman took maternity leave;

A woman will able to carry out up to ten days’ paid work (Keeping in Touch days) for her employer without loss to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) during the weeks these days fall in - until recently women lost her SMP entitlement for the whole week in which she worked in whole or in part. Two points to bear in mind: firstly, regulations prohibit a woman from working for two weeks immediately after the baby is born and secondly, although it’s a matter entirely between the employer and employee, KIT days may be taken in any combination. However if the woman works only part of a day she will be deemed to have used a whole KIT day;

the weekly rate of SMP will be divisible by seven so that a daily rate can be used to enable SMP payments to slot in with existing pay practice – most useful where monthly pay is applied; and

the standard rate of SMP, Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) has risen to £112.75 per week from April 6th 2007.

Incidentally, the extension of the pay period to 39 weeks, together with the intoduction of KIT days during the MPP without loss of SMP applies also to SAP. Likewise, the ability to receive the benefit on a daily basis also applies to SPP and SAP.