as bad service goes 7 years to resolve is unbelievable!

good luck wonky100 !!

actually found this on the tax credit calculator Statutory Maternity Pay To help you take time off work when you have a baby, you may be able to get Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), a weekly payment from your employer. If you had a child (or adopted a child) in the last tax year you may have taken statutory maternity, adoption or paternity leave during the year and your employer may have paid you statutory maternity, adoption or paternity pay. SMP is a taxable income, but for tax credits purposes £100 a week is ignored. You need to deduct £100 from your income for each week you received SMP. If you were on maternity leave but your employer did not pay you SMP, you may have claimed Maternity Allowance instead. Do not include Maternity Allowance received as this is not counted as income for tax credits purposes. There is no mention of deducting for anything other than statutory maternity pay?

I'm not sure I know the answer but just to check are you saying you got more than statutory maternity pay from 01/08/11 to 31/01/12 (I am guessing you got a higher contractual maternity pay for this period?) I know that for SMP you can disregard £100 per week - I do not know the answer if it is contractual maternity pay I'm afraid?

And by putting in a £2500 disregard on lowering wages in a year they have further cut the payouts just when you need it most As I'm being made redundant but have a very young baby I can't earn enough to work and pay the childcare (especially as I have a child at school as well) so now I'm for the first time in my life going to have to claim benefits as my partner doesn't earn enough to keep our family going on his wages alone and until my bubs is at least a year old I don't have any family that can help take him in the day I think therefore the 2500 disregard in drop in income is going to reduce my ctc just when I need them most leaving us heavily relying on my redundancy payout until I can get back in to work yet still there is no way I can keep making the minimum payments on my credit card and catalogue account - its going to be a very tough year! Getting through smp took all our savings! Childcare costs are too high for young babies - oh and let's not forget that because the government cut funding my schools after school club has closed too

its not much notice for people - must be a nightmare

I work for a nursery in the accounts department and can confirm they do telephone nurseries to confirm the charges for nursery fees for particular families on occasions so I expect they would

Hi I've just put some paragraphs in your post as i was having a lot of trouble reading it in one big block. I know how easy it is to just write and write with no gaps when you are frustrated about something! I'm afraid i don't know the answer to your question. It seems to me that the third option would be I would go for if I were you! Have you tried writing to your MP again with the latest info? It surely couldn't hurt to get them involved again? oh and as for the £8000 can you not just phone them and tell them this is wrong - they should then be able to recalculate the current award on the correct figures?

You can sometimes fight the big guys - I assisted my sister in a complaint to the benefits people whereby they had underpaid her for 2 years without her knowledge as they put sanctions against her (relating to csa claim) without telling her and they refused to backdate the increase. It took 3 letters but we got the money she was rightfully owed. They admitted the CSA information was a mess so they couldn't be sure she hadn't sent back the relevant form (which she had). I also had a disagreement with the job centre over incorrect information they gave me when I needed to sign off of job seekers allowance and again they refused to pay me 2 weeks money but after 2 complaint letters to the job centre and then a call in which I asked for the chief executives contact details they decided they were wrong and paid me what I was owed! Its always worth arguing as it only costs a few stamps My tip is to find the top person if your complaint gets nowhere and send details to the chief executive!

i read about this the other day for 1 child the limit will be much lower - they sneaked that change through nice and quietly!!

Hopefully this should help as a guide but please do check all the figures and calculations yourself to make sure you are happy with them your weekly rate should be £313.46 90% is around £285 (rounded up) you can disregard £100 so 6 weeks @ £185 = £1110 SMP will be £135.45 but again you can disregard £100 so 33 weeks @ £35.45 = 1169.85 total fir 9 months off on statutory maternity would be £2279.85 you would also (I presume) have 3 months at full pay which would be 13 weeks @ £313.46 = £4075 i make the total around 6354.85 for you You should know though that I have post pregnancy baby brain so please do check all the above calculations if your not going back for a year it will be a little lower

Sorry not sure if this is the right place. After much assistance in the employment section on here I am now aware of what I shall be being paid for my redundancy payments whilst on maternity leave but I have a tax question and can't find the answer through google. I will be being paid 14 weeks SMP as a lump sum when my employment is terminated at the end of March to cover my SMP due for March - early June. This SMP should have taken me to early june 2012 and therefore would not have attracted tax or national insurance as it would have been below the threshold (personal allowance) if it was paid monthly instead of a lump sum. I am therefore going to now pay Tax & NHI on the whole amount (as I will be receiving notice pay, a retention bonus as well in March payment) and as it is the end of the tax year I would not get a rebate in the usual way. From looking around I don't think there is anything that can be done about the national insurance but is there anyway to ask the tax man to rebate the tax on the SMP portion that should have covered April - June 2012 and if so can anyone point me in the right direction? (I understand i cannot work before the SMP period is up or else I have to pay back any portion overpaid so surely therefore HMRC must consider these future earnings so it must surely be possible to get the tax back - at the moment I will be losing out quite a lot on my SMP just because I got made redundant which doesn't seem fair)

Thank you Sidewinder I am proud of my won status

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! I have had a letter stating they do not agree that I should have had the info or that I was discriminated against but as they do not want a protracted legal battle over the matter they are offering me the amount equivalent to the bonus to settle the matter! Thank you soooo much Mariefab, Sidewinder and BRB (and they don't want me to do any work or KIT days they are effectively just settling I really appreciate all the help and pointers in the right direction I received on here - I wouldn't have got so far without you Oh and now I have the breakdown they are paying me my slary rate for the 4 weeks notice plus SMP as well (thats very generous of them!) I of course have to sign my right away to sue them but I shall now happily do this!

I know its only a couple of grand - alot to me - not a lot to them!! I didn't as I couldn't remember it off hand (cases aren't very catchy all I remember is GUS homeshopping vs someone lol)

Sorry i do edit them alot lol Once I pointed out that discretionary bonuses could be payable still as they are not considered wages and salary and that I was aware this had been tested and won at a tribunal they then took my other complaints seriously and listened to them all (and went away with my written questions and complaints so there can be no confusion). I don't see why KIT days cannot be applicable in this case and am hopeful they will just decide it is easier to just offer me the bonus too and learn for next time lol (probably not to send the letter to the wrong person although it is no secret at work and if i hadn't already have known it was talked about in front of me when I popped into the office anyway - maybe a confidentiality clause would have been sensible) oh and they confirmed that the tasks were written very recently but they denied that they were constructed as such to specificly exclude me and said that they were listing the parts of the job that needed to be completed and to offer a bonus to make sure that staff that were needed didn't just leave. I did suggest as they were simply a rough outline of my job spec and that the only reason I couldn't complete them was because I was on maternity leave could also be argued as discrimatory especially as if I wasn't on mat leave I would be undertaking these duties! I also queried why some of the tasks related to a period which wouldn't considered to be part of the retention period - they said they didn't know - they agreed it was odd and could only think that when they were drawn up the tasks had not yet been completed.

Oh and a PS just for clarity not that it makes any difference it is two seperate HR departments that have been dealing with the redundancy and the employment of my maternity cover (as the company was taken over after I went on maternity leave so my former employer arranged the mat cover and the new owner is arranging the redundancy through their HR department). I don't know the mat cover contract but suspect it is 4 weeks notice as is a standard contract, they didn't correct me when I said this - she's also on holiday at the moment so I'm not sure they can give her notice just yet?

although she would have that clause i believe she gets 4 weeks notice (so as we are now so much through feb it effectively means she could not leave until 13th March), I wondered whether the letter sent would be an issue although unless hers is different to mine is just says you have to be employed to 31st March to receive the bonus so I guess she would just not receive the bonus however I think that I can argue that the retention period for me would be from 13th March to 31st March (as not only would this date be the date that my maternity leave could leave after notice it is also the period after the 4 week notice that all other staff have been given although they are being offered either gardening leave or PILON depending on their preference so most will terminate as at 14th Feb instead however I think its arguable). I believe it may actually also possible to complete the tasks listed if they applied from mid feb to end of march in the ten days I could work but obviously it is much tighter and I am not sure that I could guarantee it was possible - !! Sorry Mariefab i don't understand the last line of yours or the implications? I have not suggested to them to work more than 10 days as I was unsure what implications it would have for me?.

Can I ask a question - KIT days would make alot more sense in my circumstances. I understand if I work them that I can do 10 days and still get SMP. If i do anymore I believe I would lose SMP for that week? or is it that my maternity leave automatically ends. Is there any reason that as it is for such a short period that I could not request that KIT days be used instead of return to work under the unusual situation that has arisen? If so I would propose emailing this to clarify my position to them Dearxxx, Further to my previous email (below) and our meeting earlier I am pleased that you are willing to discuss the options around the possibility of me being allowed the chance to fulfil the requirements to receive the retention bonus. Having looked into the matter I have found that the delay in enabling me to discuss the options surrounding the retention bonus has already put me at a disadvantage however I have also discovered that I can work 10 Keep in touch days whilst still on maternity leave. As the tasks proposed (for the future not the past as discussed) would not require to work full time up to 31st March I would propose that it would be reasonable (considering the short time frame) to allow me to work up to the 10 KIT days to complete the tasks outlined without requiring me to return so early from maternity leave. If you decide to allow me to attempt to complete the tasks provided this would be a preferable option, would not disadvantage me because you had not provided the information when required and would still allow me to spend quality time with my young son and not force me to end my maternity leave early just to complete the tasks requested. If it is considered that the retention period be from 13th March to 31st March and the tasks applicable are therefore just those relating to March then 10 working days should be plenty to complete those outlined conditions. Returning to work early from maternity leave is not preferable as the delays in being able to make the decision due to not being provided with the information when it was available would put me at a disadvantage at this stage and it would no longer to be in my best financial interest to return to my position at this stage. If you decide that you will not allow me to attempt to fulfil the tasks required then you are aware of my disagreements in relation to the tasks you have now provided to me. xxx **edit ** I have sent the above email - I do not see why it would not be possible to complete the tasks in 10 working days particularly if the retention period is considered to be from 13th March however if the retention period is considered to be from 15/02/12 instead then It may still be possible to complete the required tasks in the 10 days - had I returned to work in early february then it would have been in my interest to return however as it has already been delayed due to them not providing the information earlier I would now be better off not returning to work. Its most frustrating!

well I'm not very satisfied with the return to work option as i will only marginally be better off however I have stipulated this is something we can discuss and also the option of instead working keep in touch days and also that I need not to be put at any disadvantage because I was not provided the information when it was available (as i won't be better off if they now make me give 4 weeks notice and then return to work - i will in fact be much worse off!) and also that they should not have both myself and my maternity cover in position for the duration as we would not both need to undertake the same tasks (we wouldn't have enough to do!)

they agreed the end date was wrong and they had overlooked that fact so they have agreed that the last date at work should be 31st and then 4 weeks notice PILON at that point. I put all my points across on the retention bonus and they are looking into and getting back to me today or tomorrow the possibility of either returning to my position early (which i know means i miss out on smp however it is in my favour to do this financially as i will end up slightly better off) and if not are taking further advice on everything else. They started to take my complaint seriously when i pointed out that remuneration relates to wages and salary and discretionary bonuses can still be payable, My gut instinct says they will get me back into my position as it costs them less but i shall wait and see what they say later

thanks Mariefab I have taken all of the above on board

thanks Mariefab i do know from conversations with staff in my department that they received 2 requests before mine for the extra terms and from my maternity leave after I had requested them so i would expect that they cannot prove this as it would make no sense not to have provided them on request unless the terms had not been drafted. I do plan to ask them to answer my further questions and hear out my grievances tomorrow during my third consultation meeting (now that I have had access to the further info that I needed). do you think i would be better off instead asking to appeal or can i do both or would just providing the details of my complaint tomorrow be sufficient (my worry about asking for an appeal to be held after tomorrow is that it will be very difficult for me to get a work place representative as most of the positions are likely to have been made redundant after tomorrow!)

Thanks they have decided now that as the other HR lady has so many people to see I will now be seen by the top two members of HR so i may still be able to put across my further points (i don't suppose this is the actual reason at all and expect that I infact get the HR manager & Director as I have asked them some difficult questions and probably upset them). I will make sure I ask to appeal both as suggested although it doesn't look so far like they are following any kind of grievance/complaint procedure so I don't expect much from that either but I would prefer to settle this if possible before having to take further action. I would like (if I can get them to agree) to furnish them with all my further questions and grievances at this meeting as at present they have not allowed me to put all my concerns/complaints across to them! In response to your other questions:- Does this confirmation include (from my maternity cover); The date she was verbally informed of the bonus. yes 24/01/12 (I know just via casual conversations that others received the letter earlier but i don't have written confirmation of this and it was just informal chats. It does look like my mat cover got their letter late because they accidently sent it to me instead in error!) The date/s on which she (and others) requested details about any further conditions about the bonus. yes 06/02/12 (I know others requested earlier than this but only through informal chats I don't have any written evidence of this - I can ask a colleague to confirm but of course there is no guarantee that she will?) The date that she received written notification of the bonus. yes 05/02/12 The date that she received the conditions about the bonus. yes 08/02/12 Whether, or not, others who are being retained have received similar bonus conditions and if so when. no as this info would not come from her but in previous email with HR they confirmed others had their own terms to full fill Any indication of the date on which the additional conditions of the bonus were compiled. no she would not know this and HR decided to ignore my request in relation to just when they sent them to my mat cover However i sent them confirmation on 3rd feb that no terms were included and they still sent a letter to my mat cover without terms and conditions provided after I had made them aware of the error (as she did not receive a letter until 6th feb confirming the retention bonus in writing). Common sense would surely dictate that they did not write the terms and conditions until 5th or 6th Feb surely? I can of course ask HR when they were written and why they weren't sent out but I don't expect them to admit they were written after I raised my complaint and there would be no way for me to prove or disprove this other than from the various time lines it is unlikely they were written before my complaint to them on 3rd Feb? The terms themselves are just a very rough outline of some of my job specifications so there really is no excuse for the delay! They could have been written in minutes whilst looking at my job spec! I also asked my mat cover to confirm when she was informed her termination date would be 31st march and she stated she found this out on 6th Feb

I am not experienced in all the legal side of employment law but it is clear if she owes you wages she has to pay it even if she makes you redundant How long have you worked there? If its over 2 years you will also be due notice and redundancy and accrued holiday as you say edit sorry you do state 3 years so if your contract doesnt stipulate more then you also get 1 week per year worked notice pay? depending on your due date and eligability you may also be due SMP (I believe if the notice period would take you up to 15 weeks before your due date and you were eligible for SMP then SMP is still payable - but I'm sure someone more knowledgable can advise on this). Doing rough calculations it must be pretty close depending on when she notified you you will be made redundant and when your baby is due as to whether you fall into the 25th week of pregnancy? I found the info here but having read alot on redundancy and pregnancy recently (due to my own maternity related issues) I have seen it listed in a lot of places http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/before-the-equality-act/guidance-for-employers-pre-october-10/guidance-on-managing-new-and-expectant-parents/managing-pregnant-women/redundancy-and-dismissal-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/ Oh and as another thought I believe if she makes your role redundant she cannot then fill the same role within a certain period (which I think is 6 months but am not 100% sure on this). It seems from earlier posts she is planning to reopen at end of March?