Maternity pay support staff school

[Neelamj]

Hi

Just wondering to we need to pay back maternity pay (13weeks worth) if we do not end up going back to work? OR is that only contractual (if you have worked there 12 months plus).

i intend to go back however not sure what my circumstances will be later on in the future so want to know before I accept maternity pay and then have issues with paying it off or going back to work when ai may not be able to.

also whilst on this topic, are you allowed to out the last day of holiday as your mat start date? (Eg, last day of easter holiday or last day of half term hol)

thank you in advance! :)

You will have to check your contract and any policies your place of work has
statutory pay shouldn’t have to be paid back but anything over and above that could be - depends what your workplace offers

You can only start maternity so many weeks before the baby is born

You have to start it before / when baby is born. There is not enough information in your post to answer the question

I was due on the 23rd August. Had the baby early September.
My HR lady set my maternity date from the 1st September as that was when school returned. So in my case, my maternity date was after my due date. I would have let her know if it happened sooner but it worked out well.

To my knowledge, yes you have to pay any additional pay back if you don't return to work. You also have to return for a certain amount of time before leaving and still having to pay back.
You'll have to double check. My union were lots of help guiding me in this and helping me negotiate part time hours when I returned.

Good luck and congratulations

At my school, yes you would have to pay back any OMP if you did not return to work. However you could opt not to take the OMP initially, and just take SMP. Then later on, if you decided you were definitely returning, you can the opt to take the OMP later in your mat leave.

So a couple of people have opted to just take SMP at the beginning of mat leave, and then asked for OMP to start once SMP runs out. See what your mat pay policy is to see what is/is not possible.

Yes, no problem at all taking last day of holiday as mat leave start date, though I would take the 1st day of the new term as the start date. Obviously if baby comes earlier than that then start of mat leave would be changed to the day after the baby is born.

You could put your due date as the start of your mat leave if you wish - regardless as to when this falls. If your date is the first day of a term, then out that date - not the date at the start if the holiday preceding it.