Repaying maternity pay

[AussieGirl78]

Hi
I was wondering if anyone knows where I stand in regards to having to pay maternity pay back to my employers?
I went on a years maternity pay in August 2009 and had DS that month, I took company maternity pay as was fully expecting to return after the year
However when DS was 2 months old I accidentally fell pregnant again (through my own silly fault) and my employer granted me another years maternity leave this time with statuatory maternity pay
Now with 2 under 2 and no flexibility in my work environment in terms of part time and my wage not justifying childcare DP and I have decided it's best for me to stay home with the children
I have a payout figure from work but was wonderingif anyone knows if I can pay this in installments as otherwise would be a massive issue

I just want to have the knowledge behind me when I go to see my employers!

Thanks in advance

SMP element is not repayable but any enhanced pay may be, depending on the T and C's of the scheme . This has to have been clear at the time of you going on ML. I don't think they have to accept installments but if you make an offer to do so a court may well not look favourably on them if they refuse and then try to recover it in one go.

I know I'll have to repay some but hoping they'll let me pay it back as we'll only have the one wage coming in

I'll have to make arrangements to go see them!

I would contact citizens advice and get some advice.

As others have said, you cannot be asked to pay SMP back, but you can be asked to pay back your enhanced maternity pay (so the difference between what you would have received in SMP and what you actually received). The exact amount and how it is to be repaid should have been clear at the start. They can probably take it directly out of anything they owe you (holiday pay etc) and if you explain the situation and offer a schedule of repayments, I'm sure they'll agree.

Be warned though my employer a LA told me I had to pay back all the enhanced pay including the tax they had paid on it, and then claim the tax back from Revenue and Customs......