Mat Leave - what does your work offer?

[Riss10]

My husband and I currently live in the UK and we are making the decision whether to have children here or back in Australia. My work offers 4 ? months full maternity pay + a return to work bonus. I also get 28 days holiday, so all up I will have almost 6 months Mat pay. I?m then eligible for 26 weeks at Statutory pay - around ?120 per week.

On top of that the government gives a child grant of around ?80 per month + a ?250 baby grant which you can invest for the child + they cover the costs of the birth if in a public hospital

I?ve never worked properly in Australia so I have no idea what companies/government offer in terms of Mat leave and child support. I?d be really keen to hear the following:

*what your work offers
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify
*what kind on industry you work in
*how many days holiday you get per year
*Government - what financial support do they provide

Thanks ladies!

[Loveinamist]

My husband and I currently live in the UK and we are making the decision whether to have children here or back in Australia. My work offers 4 ? months full maternity pay + a return to work bonus. I also get 28 days holiday, so all up I will have almost 6 months Mat pay. I?m then eligible for 26 weeks at Statutory pay - around ?120 per week.

On top of that the government gives a child grant of around ?80 per month + a ?250 baby grant which you can invest for the child + they cover the costs of the birth if in a public hospital

I?ve never worked properly in Australia so I have no idea what companies/government offer in terms of Mat leave and child support. I?d be really keen to hear the following:

*what your work offers
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify
*what kind on industry you work in
*how many days holiday you get per year
*Government - what financial support do they provide

Thanks ladies!

I am not sure about recently but when I was working in Australia a couple of years ago and planning a pregnancy I had to fight to get twelve weeks maternity pay from my employers (I was a teacher at a private secondary school). The standard then was 6 paid weeks and I negotiated 12 but that was around the time of Workplace Agreements under John Howard which (please Aussies correct me if I am wrong!!) have been discarded now under the new government. Back then as well there was the baby bonus which is a pretty big whack of cash (about $5000 I think) but you need to prove that you are a permanent resident of Australia and it is paid over a period of time. In this way it is probably comparable to our Statutory Mat pay (or Mat allowance) in the UK.

One thing we found living in Australia was the cost of living is not as cheap as you would think. House prices have rocketed and rents as well. We lived in Australia in the late 90s and then again in the mid 2000s and really noticed the difference in the cost of living. We were much better off in the late 90s and that was when we were not as high up in our careers and on less money!!! Australia is a lovely place to bring up children but then there are places here in the UK that have the same qualities. We decided to come back to the UK as it suited our lifestyle better, our families are both here and we are no better off financially in either place!! I am not sure if you are Australian or not and have family there or here in the UK but being in the same country as our families was a big factor in our decision to have children here. I really wanted my children to see their grandparents more than once every couple of years if that. It is up to the individual of course and every situation is different but they were the reasons for our decision.

Hope that helps! Hopefully some Aussies who are actually in Australia at the moment will be able to give you some more recent information!

EDIT -forgot to say that my 12 weeks pay was conditional on having been with the employer for 12 months!

[Miss E]

Hi Riss,

Maternity leave is changing soon in Australia. Your employer has to give you 12 months of unpaid leave and offer you the same or equivalent position back upon your return. Currently we have the baby bonus at the moment put it is paid in 13 fortnightly installments of just under $400. There are also offer family benefits available which are means tested, but I'm not all that familiar with them. If you have a look at the centrelink website you'll probably be able to get a good idea of what you may be eligible for.

In 2010 (I think) the government baby bonus will be changed to be a maternity payment which will be equivalent to the minimum wage and paid for 16 weeks I think. Your employer will also have to make super contributions on your behalf, and may offer you paid maternity leave on top of the government one.

Currently not many employers offer paid maternity leave, it's mainly employees in government services that get it. But there is a big push here now and more and more private companies are starting to develop policies.

I was able to negotiate a package with my employer for my leave, but it was done on an individual basis and I really had to push for it. To answer your questions:

*what your work offers
I was given 8 weeks at full maternity pay. I had annual leave and long service leave owing to me. So all up I got about 20 weeks of full pay which I have elected to be spread over 52 weeks. Being in a lower tax bracket I get a little under half of what my take home pay was.

*how long you have to be with you company to qualify
I've been there 10 years, it's a smaller company and my long service allowed me to negotiate this, I don't think that they have ever done more than a week or two of paid leave before. I really had to push and lobby for it though.

*what kind on industry you work in
Advertising

*how many days holiday you get per year
4 weeks (20 days). This is standard in Australia and protected by law.

*Government - what financial support do they provide
See above

Hope this helps. I think overall the situation is improving here in Australia, but we still have a long way to go. By the sound of things you've got a pretty good option there in the UK. Like Poppyfairy said, the cost of living here is really high these days, but if you're living in London you're probably used to that.

[ss_storm]

I work in local government and am eligible for 16 weeks paid leave on half pay or 8 weeks full pay, conditional on having worked for them for at least 12 months. Unfortunately for me (and I am still so upset about this!) I have worked for them for about 16 months, but the first 12 months I was on a traineeship with them which apparently 'doesn't count'...so I don't get any paid leave at all. I can get up to 2 years unpaid leave and can go back to work part time until my kids reach school age.

At the moment I think leave really depends on who you are working for. Hopefully one day (it has been promised...but who knows when it will actually happen) there will be a nation-wide maternity leave scheme. mum's are one of the most important things in a baby/child's life and I don't think we should be forced to go back to work due to our financial situations.

[~Kim~]

Miss Excited the government's paid maternity leave is not set in concrete - they're still talking about it unfrotunately.

*what your work offers - I get 14 weeks full or 28weeks at half pay
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify - 12 months
*what kind on industry you work in - I'm with the cops
*how many days holiday you get per year - 6 weeks usually but we work out west so get an extra week
*Government - what financial support do they provide - baby bonus as PP said, but I had to fight tooth and nail to get mine. We don't get any other governemnt subsidy either.

Having your baby in a public hospital doesn't cost you a thing, but if you want private anything or a doula or a homebirth the $$ really start to add up.

[Loveinamist]

I work in local government and am eligible for 16 weeks paid leave on half pay or 8 weeks full pay, conditional on having worked for them for at least 12 months. Unfortunately for me (and I am still so upset about this!) I have worked for them for about 16 months, but the first 12 months I was on a traineeship with them which apparently 'doesn't count'...so I don't get any paid leave at all. I can get up to 2 years unpaid leave and can go back to work part time until my kids reach school age.

At the moment I think leave really depends on who you are working for. Hopefully one day (it has been promised...but who knows when it will actually happen) there will be a nation-wide maternity leave scheme. mum's are one of the most important things in a baby/child's life and I don't think we should be forced to go back to work due to our financial situations.

Storm, You just reminded me with your story of your really unfair treatment re the traineeship (that really sucks!!!) one of the BIG differences we found with work conditions in Australia and the UK is there are so many ways employers get out of doing their statutory obligations in the different ways they employ people. My DH and I found that it was really hard to get permanent full time work in Australia and alot of the maternity benefits and leave etc are dependent on being perm full time. Lots of people are employed on a casual basis and this disqualifies them from so many benefits although the higher pay is always sold as a sweetener. I worked for a govt dept in Australia for about a year before they would employ me as permanent. So when they finally did employ me I would have had to wait another year to qualify for mat pay. I know this can happen in the UK as well but we found it more prevalent in Australia. The job situation for us got pretty bad. I was trained in Australia as a teacher but even so had to move outback to get work and even that only came up after a 6 month job search (and in that time it was impossible to get supply work). DH had a job at one point working about only 5 hours a week. We ended up spending all our savings we had brought with us from our UK house sale just paying for rent and food while we tried to find jobs.

[NaeNae]

I work for local government also and am entitled to 13 weeks paid Mat leave which I can take at a half pay over 26 weeks. I am also eligible for the full 12 months leave including the paid portion, the remaining time is unpaid.

I can also be paid out any accured Annual leave but cannot take the time for it (so if I had 4 weeks annual leave I couldn't take 12 months mat followed by 4 weeks annual)

There is also an additional 12 months unpaid leave for parents which is not widely publicized.

We will also be recieving the Governments Baby Bonus - not sure how much that is but I think that is also paid either in a lump sum or in instalments - last year it was a lump sum butits changed so I will let you know in a few months time

Miss Excitied - I was under the impression that the governments paid Mat leave scheme was not replacing the current baby bonus but was instead of the baby bonus for people who's employers do not offer the paid mat leave. Its more than the baby bonus but then the mother is not eligible for the FTB ?? or something like that. I am sure someone with more of an idea will be able to go into more details about that


Nae x

[sloane]

*what your work offers - i get the statutory minimum, so i am entitled to take up to 12 months of unpaid leave.
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify - 12 months
*what kind on industry you work in - i work for a software company
*how many days holiday you get per year - 4 weeks

the govt entitlements have been covered already.

i have worked for a university previously and their entitlements were fantastic so it does depend on the employer.

[NaeNae]

For some reason I cannot edit my post.

Poppyfairy - thats right for casual employees, as casuals get paid a higher rate of pay to compensate for the no annual etc. BUT its not just full time employees, permanent part time employees are entitled to the same rights as full time employees pro-rata.

[Leah28]

I know this post was last active in October, but wow... I can't believe the rough deal some people get! I work in a male dominated industry/company and I get much better entitlements than some...

*what your work offers - 14 weeks @ full pay, with 4 weeks pay return to work bonus.
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify - Only 3 months!
*what kind on industry you work in Mining
*how many days holiday you get per year 5 Weeks
*Government - what financial support do they provide Everyone else has pretty well covered this, but I'll add that the baby bonus is now means tested. If the household earns over $75k in the six months after the baby is born, you're ineligible. I'll probably just scrape in, but no biggie if we don't get it

[UntoldAngel]

Leah28 - I didn't realise, or maybe I just hadn't bothered to look into it properly, that there was a cut-off for the baby bonus... I am self employed so although I can take as much time off as I want, I won't be paid for it. We were hoping that the baby bonus would help offset the loss of my monthly income, but it may not as DP works in the mining industry and should be earning a substantial amount of money although a wedding and a baby in the one year is going to hurt the hip pocket!!

[Leah28]

Belle_S - yes, the means test started in July this year. Bit of a bummer really, cos although we may earn a bit more than usual, we certainly aren't rolling in cash!

We had to postpone our wedding, which was set for October next year, due to the pregnancy and less funds coming in as a result. Eloping looks like a good option right now!

[briggsy's girl]

the means testing started in january this year for baby bonus purposes. it has been widely publicised (and criticised lol) since the budget in may 2009.

[danniellabella]

*what your work offers: 12 months maternity leave, of which, 18 weeks is paid at full pay, or 36 weeks at half pay. Upon returning to work after maternity leave there is an option to return at 60% of the hours you worked just prior to starting leave and getting a 40% top up of your wage for 16 weeks.
*how long you have to be with you company to qualify: 12 months
*what kind on industry you work in: University
*how many days holiday you get per year: 4 weeks recreation leave, 10 days sick leave, 5 days special leave (eg: carers leave, berievement leave), 8 days antinatal leave during pregnancy (all the affore mentioned is paid leave), plus additional paid or unpaid leave by negotiation for special circumstances
*Government - what financial support do they provide: can't remember what that is now

[UntoldAngel]

Leah - yeah we have bub due in June and wedding at end of August... bub was an unexpected suprise!!! Eloping does sound like a good option right now, but I want to be able to share it with family and friends - have even thought about organising a massive bbq and inviting people, and then just have a celebrant turn up... no one would be clued in (except for those that would have to travel) and it would be a lot less hassle...
Briggsy's girl - I must have been oblivious this whole time.. I haven't heard anything about the means testing coming in... or maybe I just didn't pay attention because I didn't think it would be of concern to me for a number of years yet.. oh well