Maternity pay

Hiya I work for the civil service too, I’d say in the last 3 months just take your KIT days, in my first pregnancy I split the 10 days up over the 3 months so I was getting basically the same amount as stat pay and will be doing the same this time x

I don't think you're entitled to anything but I'm going to follow this post in case I'm wrong as I'm in the same boat x

The last weeks after SMP are unpaid.

No you cannot claim anything maternity related. You can claim universal credit if you qualify

No but I used my 10 kit days, “returned” at 10 months and then used my accrued annual leave. That way I got the last 8/9 weeks fully paid and returned to a new allowance (depends on when your leave renews). My managers also used their annual leave to extend mat leave and get full pay.

I have spread my years annual leave allowance over the last 3 months and will be using my 10 KIT days. Hoping that will just about cover my half of mortgage and bills

If you call the universal credit line they are actually quite helpful! I called and explained after 12 weeks I’ll only get stat pay, which after mortgage and a couple of bills will still leave me short of some bills and food etc. I’m not able to claim UC because of the stat maternity pay, but we can get child allowance and child benefit. The application takes around 5 weeks though so you have to apply 5 weeks before your full pay runs out.

For me it worked out that the stat pay + child benefits + child allowance comes to around £1200 per month, which isn’t great but will cover bills etc.

With KIT days I’m planning on using these all in one go (as this can affect benefits due to it being full days) then going back to work but taking holiday allowance straight away.

During the unpaid time you could still claim child benefit but UC can’t be used to make mortgage payments (if you have a mortgage) so you might have to prove you have other funds for mortgage payments. Hope this helps!