Maternity pay- taking over business with pregnant therapist

[xkayla_herex]

I'm in the process of taking over a beauty salon and one of the therapist there is pregnant and going on maternity from the 4th of may (she now works full time but the current owner said it's more than likely the therapist will want to reduce her days to part time when she comes back to work)

My question is how does maternity pay work? Isit the first 6 weeks that the employer pays? Then after that it's just the government?

And who would pay this me or the current owner? Its still fairly early stages so I haven't got a takeover date, but if I prolong it to take over from after the 6 weeks (which would be 15th of June) then would it be down to her to pay?

I have a therapist that will take over the girl on maternity leave so I didn't want to pay for both of them especially when I don't know the therapist going on maternity- what if I pay her then she doesn't bother coming back?!

 

[cheekychick]

https://www.gov.uk/employers-maternity-pay-leave/entitlement
This might help

I'm currently on maternity leave and receive statutory mat pay. As far as I know my employer pays it to me but they claim it back. x