Maternity Pay
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We’re saving to help cover things like my part of the mortgage when I’m on smp and trying to cut down on monthly outgoings like subscriptions so it won’t be so bad when that smp hits. It’s just so crap how minimal the pay is and it’s all tax, ni deductible 😢
I also only get smp, but this is always something we've taken into account when we moved home. We made sure that we could live on his wages only if needed as we wanted to start a family (took us 2 years but we have our little boy cooking 🥰). I save anyway but it's nice knowing I can take the full 12 months off and not worry about 3 months pay. Because when am I ever going to be able to spend that time with baby again! If I can, I will x
I’m the same as you, with my work I get full pay for 18 weeks and then down to SMP. I’m currently saving what I can to help for the couple of months I will get paid only SMP and then when I am on it I will be doing a strict budget. My thoughts are the more I can save now the better the budget will be
i have enhanced up until 20 wk. yes we’ve saved for this maternity and the next one too, so i can take 2 full years 😌 we started saving a couple of years ago for it
I've been saving since before we started trying because i knew smp wasn't that great. We're hopefully moving before baby arrives so mortgage etc will all be going up so doing our best to budget as well
@Helen we’re in the same boat - better to be prepared with an increasing mortgage.
Wow that sounds great! I’m saving for maternity because I don’t get any weeks at full pay 😂
Save what you can now, you won’t regret it. I’m lucky I already have savings and I’m adding to it every month but if I didn’t have that I’d be back to work after 6 weeks. I’m only offered SMP from the day after baby is born which is shocking for 10 years service at my job 😕
I get the same as you. We are saving to cover the few months on SMP and I am using 2025/2026 annual leave entitlements to bulk up paid leave towards the end. So luckily I will only be on SMP for about 3ish months which our savings will cover 😊
I only get SMP for all the time I take, so we are having to save now, as it is a big cut to our household earnings, as well take a reduced leave time, but there will also be budgeting whilst we are off.