Told to go back to work after maternity

[LittleTwiglet]

So I have been furloughed for the month of april as the company I work for shut down. But I have now been told they are opening next week and I am expected to be in.

I finished my maternity leave at the end of march, so was due to go back in april but couldn't because of the lockdown and I was furloughed.

I have no childcare available to me currently, so dont see how I am able to go back, but dont want my maternity money to be taken back, but surely as I had been furloughed this should count as 'being at work' for the maternity money side as I have to be at work at least 3 months so I dont have to pay it back?

If you didn't have childcare, why did you come back from maternity? I get you had some planned and it fell through, but lockdown had started in april

It sounds you opted for furlough, so that you would get 80% wages, but didnt think about what happens when they tell you to come back.

Didn't they explain this to you, surely they have some responsibility to have made you aware you would be expected back in, if they opened again?

My maternity leave had completely finished, I had taken the full 52 weeks, and the day I was due back I was told I had been furloughed.