Maternity allowance?

[Heathwood]

Hi folks,

Got a bit of an unfortunate situation and would appreciate some advice / clarification.

My wife has been served notice of redundancy. Ok, st happens. However, she is also pregnant and week 25 falls just after scheduled redundancy . This means she'll not be entitled to SMP.

Ok, so I think she's entitled to maternity allowance. This indicates that the lesser of £135.45 per week or 90% of gross weekly earnings will be payable. Well, if she's earning nothing by this time (as she'll have ceased employment), 90% of nothing is nothing! Am I understanding this correctly? I guess what I'm asking is can we expect any help at all? Sorry, bit stressed about this.

Thanks for any help

[clarkey]

Sadly you are correct. She'll need to find out what other benefits may be available....

[eps]

Did they know she was pregnant?

[eps]

If it helps - if there is any "discussion" see here : http://www.purplejunior.co.uk/ for free legal advice.

I should mention that my wife is involved in the link above - she is a solicitor. The website is backed up by a traditional firm of solicitors, in the Legal 100, not some fly by night set of unknown ambulance chasers, etc..

Edited by eps on Wednesday 25th July 21:18

[Heathwood]

eps said:

Did they know she was pregnant?

No, all members of a small team were placed at risk at the same time. There was nothing untoward.

[DSLiverpool]

Heathwood said:

No, all members of a small team were placed at risk at the same time. There was nothing untoward.

It doesn't matter if the employer was told of her pregnancy or not, any unfair dismissal / selection is treated as if the employer knew she was pregnant and the only reason they are making her redundant is because she is pregnant.
Happened to me - still gobsmacked over it.

[R1 Indy]

DSLiverpool said:

It doesn't matter if the employer was told of her pregnancy or not, any unfair dismissal / selection is treated as if the employer knew she was pregnant and the only reason they are making her redundant is because she is pregnant.
Happened to me - still gobsmacked over it.

uh, how would they do that if they didn't know she was pregnant???

[DSLiverpool]

Dunno but brief, 2nd brief, hr guy, hr company said p ay her off she is Teflon in the eyes of the law.
She did it again a few years after.

[southendpier]

This isn't true. Pregancy should not make a difference at all to a redundancy decision.