An Unexpected Maternity Leave "Benefit" in UK - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Women going on maternity leave in the UK may decide to increase their salary deductions for pension in the hope that the payments will continue to be met by their employers.

• Both sides of the issue should be aware of the matter (and some women involved may find themselves on both sides at the same time).

• An employers’ benefits-monitoring group reported the option, which follows “amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, which came into force in October, and effectively stipulate that employers must provide the same non-cash contractual benefits to women on additional maternity leave as they do for women on ordinary maternity leave, extending the period to 52 weeks.”

• Whether a pension is a non-cash benefit is a point still being debated, but some experts are advising companies to make the full contributions to avoid potential legal jeopardy.

• David Hewison associate director (employment tax and incentives) at Smith & Williamson, told the monitoring group: “If a woman would like to save rather a lot towards her retirement, for instance, and had sacrificed away 30% of her pay, that could hurt quite a lot during her period of maternity pay.”

The employeebenefits.co.uk report