NHS enhanced maternity pay and not returning for the required period

[Planningfortheworst]

Has anyone taken NHS enhanced maternity pay then not gone back for the required 3 months and managed to not pay it back?
Circumstances have changed and I'm not sure I'll be going back to work after maternity leave finishes now.
I know I can take all my accrued annual leave so in reality I only need to work 7 weeks before leaving I think. But even then I'm not sure how I'm going to manage 12.5 hour shifts if I'm on my own and have no support, plus no nurseries around here cover these hours and even if they did they're two year waiting lists and the idea of leaving a one year old for 13 hours just seems so mean 😭. I don't know how I'm going to physically be able to do it.
I don't feel bad about not going back either after claiming the maternity pay, they were awful during my pregnancy and I ended up having to get a new job and take a £9k pay cut as they refused to pay maternity leave in my previous role despite being contractually obliged to. It's a different area within the same trust so a big part of me doesn't want to go back there anyway after how I was treated.
Any advice please 🥺

I mean, this is a terrible thing to do, but you could hand your notice in, use your leave, go back off sick for the rest of your notice and leave.

they will come after you for the over payment if you don’t “go back” which could lead to court if you don’t pay it.

is there not a middle ground of getting in touch with your manager and HR and ask for their help moving you to another role that’s more manageable on your own? You’ll never be able to do long days without support from family etc, and you can’t help that. Better than being jobless/chased for money?

best of luck sounds tricky

Thank you. Honestly that's the thought I keep coming back to.
Then I've got enough savings to tide me over for a while but no idea what my long term plan will be. Probably a non-nursing job which might be a good change anyway.

Tbf with how I feel about it now and it's still months away, I think getting signed off with stress wouldn't even be fake. I've had depression and anxiety in the past and still take medication now so hoping it doesn't get worse 😔

Your only option would be to be off sick, there really isn’t a loop hole to get around paying it back.

Agree with the above, asking for help moving to another role within the same trust would probably be easier than leaving and job hunting from scratch.
i don’t know what your profession is (i am a nurse) and there are not many jobs around at the moment.

You don’t need to go back to the same job just any nhs job so you could take your leave, find any part time job then resign from your original job

If you’re full time, then you can reduce your hours (significantly) to start on your return to work date (you need to request this in writing 56 days before your official return date) this will greatly increase how long your accrued leave will extend, ergo your three months will go by before your accrued annual leave ends.

Hope that makes sense.

You can return to any job in the nhs . It doesn't have to be your job you go back to, So you could look for a job that's part time hours, standard 9-5 rather than 12 hour shifts,

You could do a secondment to another role? If you don’t go back they may well garnish your holiday pay to take back the money.

When are you due to go back to work? What is your role? Are you a nurse?

You can return to any NHS job, after my first baby I returned in a new job as my old one wasn’t going to work. I’d start looking for a 9-5 job- if you’re alone with no support you’re going to be better off staying in work if you can.

Make sure you thoroughly check your trusts policy. Mine was that sickness annual leave didn't count and you actually had to physically work X amount of hours to cover your maternity pay. However it could be worked in any job role

If it’s NHS, go on paid sick leave for the 3 months, then hand your notice in. I don’t think you have any other option if you really have no support / childcare in place?