Maternity Pay

Do you get KIT days that you can use to top up?!

Limited to 10 days - not much to go by

Being due in April if you’re holidays run April to April you could use your holiday days you accrue to extend your Mat leave (so you’d start back but be on AL). I did this with my last job and managed to get a full month pay on the end.

Also as above kit days are paid. You should get 10. So you could do like 2 a month to top up.

I found with the way tax worked out I always got a little more that jest was actually statutory as well.

My company suggested taking some of the accumulated annual leave after maternity leave, I.e. I can take the full 12 months, but technically do 10 months of maternity leave + 2 months of paid annual leave, instead of having those 2 months unpaid if that makes sense

Thanks that's helpful to know x

Check whether you’re entitled to anything on universal credit. There’s a calculator online somewhere. If you’re a single parent household or your other half has a low income you might find you get a bit of help from them.

I feel your pain… my maternity pay is a fifth of what I usually earn and I’m struggling to save enough to compensate and cover all the bills. Even if I went back early I would still need to cover full time childcare 😭

I’m trying to save as much holiday as possible to boost my leave. I plan to take 9 months off and then go back a few days a week and use holiday to boost it to ease myself back in and away from baby.

Kit days won’t be amazing but it’s something. I’m going to try and do 2 a month for the last 5 months to boost pay a little

Remember you should also get child benefit of £25.60 per week. Not a lot but better than nothing

You can also sell items on places like vinted and Facebook to try boost some income

Hope that helps but I feel your pain

from September 2025 you’ll get 30 hours of childcare a week free so that might take the pressure off a bit. I know it’s only a bit :(

I’m praying that will be the case but when I booked the nursery place they said the government hasn’t officially told them yet so they can’t guarantee it’ll happen because of the new government
I’m not sure how we will cope if we don’t get it 🙈 but every other parent seems to manage so I’m sure we’ll find a way. Just wish they made the funding/government tax allowance a little simpler to digest!

at least u get 6 weeks @ 90% I fo to stat pay!

@Claire thank you for sharing. This is helpful on how you're planning your leave

I work in a care home and my maternity pay will be the same. I want to be off a year too for the same reason and one of the choices given to me is to use the annual leave that you'll mature during the maternity leave as back up during the maternity or at the end of the 33 weeks, to cover the last 3 months left. I don't know how the police if your work place are but it's worth to ask also for this option

I think it feels really scary to go off on mat leave and see your pay drop right down when you’re used to a certain amount coming in and a certain life style. But I was pleasantly surprised last time that I spent a lot less than I expected when on leave. I had more time to think about budgeting, and there are so many free/cheap classes that you can do with your baby (look for ones run by your local children’s centre, library, church etc).
You can also change your mind about your return date from Mat leave until quite late, so you could always pln to go back after 9 months, but if it’s all working out financially you could shift your return date back, or vice versa

what are KIT days?

they’re keeping in touch days where you get paid for the day and it doesn’t affect your maternity pay.
You should be allowed up to 10 and most employers don’t expect you to work the full day, just attend a meeting/check in with your boss to keep in touch with what’s going on at work
Helps boost your pay a little

do you know if it is mandatory for all the companies? My employer didn't tell me about it but I didn't yet have a proper meeting regarding maternity leave as they need a maternity certificate from the midwife and it will be released after my 20 weeks scan. If it's mandatory I can talk about it when I have the meeting, for this I'm asking.

not mandatory. They’re at the employers discretion.

thank you so much. I will check with my employer then and I really hope I can use it too 😁

Me and my partner are worried about being able to pay for everything with my maternity pay and his income alone..
we are considering me taking the first six months maternity leave and then him taking the second six months as I earn more than him so it would take the financial pressure off.