How long after your baby was born did you return to work?

The Mrs:

As of April 2010 you will get smp for 12 months. Your due date must be past April 1st though.

I have had a look online and I think this plan has been dropped - that last article I can see on it (June 09) is saying that the government are shelving the 12 months paid maternity leave.  I really hope someone can prove me wrong.

Thanks everyone. If it does go up to a year in April that's good but I'll believe it when I see it confirmed!

It's hard for me cos I have no idea where the maternity policy info is available through my work but as it's such a small company people will realise I'm considering TTCing if I ask. So I have to base my calculations on SMP only and nothing else. The car allowance thing is a bit of a concern as I get £500 a month for my work car and would have to continue paying the lease even if they stopped paying me the allowance... hmmmm. Wish this was all in an easy to reach place!!

I'll be returning when Milly is 14 months. We budgeted for 12 months leave, but I'll actually have been off for 16 months as I started ML quite early due to being hospitalized with bleeding.

As others have said, you'll get child benefit no matter waht. Also, you may be pleasantly surprise with Tax Credits. Going on our usual salaries, we didn't qualify for it, but I called the helpline and applied anyway, as I knew that once I dropped to SMP, we'd be entitles to something. Once I was on SMP I called to tell them, gave an estimation of my income for the year and they calculated that I'd get about £16 a week. Not much, but better than nothing, and I use it to buy Milly clothes and pay for her groups etc.

daisybrown:

 

The Mrs:

As of April 2010 you will get smp for 12 months. Your due date must be past April 1st though.

 

I have had a look online and I think this plan has been dropped - that last article I can see on it (June 09) is saying that the government are shelving the 12 months paid maternity leave.  I really hope someone can prove me wrong.

 

My HV told me 2 weeks ago and I have heard it from others. I hope I am not wrong. Maybe its too early for it all to be published - Mr Brown may save it for a bit nearer the time when he really needs the votes.

Well with annual  leave on both ends i will be off 14 months i will return in january when Joe will be almost 13 months I am really lucky but we have saved up to cover 3 months unpaid plus we are very skint! - But sooooooo worth it  x

I had 11 months off, L came  early otherwise I would have had the full year. I added my accrued annual leave too and that helped big time with money. I couldnt afford to be off any longer tho. Since then we have moved house and have a big mortgage at a high fixed rate till next sept so I need to wait abit before we ttc again, prob beginning of next year so mortgage payments will be  alot lower by the time I am on maternity leave. I would love to have a year off next time. Ideally I wouldnt work at all but cant afford to do that.

The Mrs:

As of April 2010 you will get smp for 12 months. Your due date must be past April 1st though.

Is this definite though? My understanding was that it was a proposal, but not finalised yet.

I had 13 months off.  Due to accruing annual leave that I wasn't allowed to carry over I left work on Sept 22nd (Erin was due Nov 23rd).  I returned mid October 2008, I could have had more time off as I had the annual leave that had accrued whilst I was away however this date ended up being the best to fit in with H's work travel and some time off he had. 

Unlike everyone else our savings were used up in buying baby equipment and seeing us through the first few months of less pay.  In order to cover the rest of the time off we went into debt! Probably not the best idea in some ways but we knew we were well credit rated and would be able to pay it off when I was back at work.  Even then we knew that we probably wouldn't have another child so I wanted to take the time off with her whilst I could.

policefox lyn:

Unlike everyone else our savings were used up in buying baby equipment and seeing us through the first few months of less pay.  In order to cover the rest of the time off we went into debt! Probably not the best idea in some ways but we knew we were well credit rated and would be able to pay it off when I was back at work.  Even then we knew that we probably wouldn't have another child so I wanted to take the time off with her whilst I could.

I started back part-time after 4 months for the same reason - we had a surprise baby, and got shafted by a landlord which meant we had an expensive move just after our son arrived. Ouch!

I was lucky in that I could work from home and needed minimal childcare at the start though.

Hepburn, one thing to remember is that, while I hate the thought of this, in many countries, such as the USA, maternity leave can be as little as 6 weeks. And people return to full time work and cope. Not ideal IMO but in comparison, 9 months is a very very long time.

I also though the 1-year SMP increase had been scrapped

Thank you everyone. You're right Zebra, what we get is so much better than some other countries. I can't believe some places only get 6 weeks!

It's all a bit what if at the moment as we don't know how long ti might take to get pregnant, but it's good having an idea of what to expect.

everyone x