Forum : Pregnancy

Hi,

I had some time off when I was pregnant and I wondered the same thing. I believe your maternity pay is worked out on what your earnings are around 24 - 26 weeks or so .... do you get full pay for being off sick? If so then it shouldn't effect anything at all. Throughout my pregnancy I had a total of around 5 weeks off sick (not all at the same time) and it didn't effect my maternity at all. The best thing to do if you're worried is speak to your HR department. I did this as I was unwell towards the back end of my pregnancy and advised by the doctor to go off sick but I was that worried I would lose my maternity rights but after speaking to HR they told me it was all ok and everything was fine.
Hope you feel better with your back soon!
Claire x

I believe that if you're off sick from 36weeks and you're signed off for a pregnancy related reason then your employer can start your maternity leave early, but not before 36 weeks. So you can be signed off before that and it will not affect your leave. That's what it is with my employer (local council) so I assume that's the same with most employers.

My water broke at 22 weeks so I was signed off for 4 weeks was supposed t go back on the 30th june n my water broke again on the 27th so was signed off again. He came a month later n my maternity pay was exactly what it should have been as normal smp

Being off sick doesnt affect your mat rights and pay, they can start your leave early but like said above not when you still only 25 weeks. I was off three times sick and they cant even issue warnings. I work for Tesco so sure you have similar awful procedures on returning after being sick!! If you need to start it early its your call not theirs. Hope everything went ok xx