Help!!! Company have got me in debt

[HarryLottie119]

Hey ladies looking for some help!
I left to go on maternity leave last august 2018. I was told by my company that I didnt earn enough to qualify for SMP so they advised me to claim for maternity allowance which i did and it was fine. Last week after 12 months of not working my company added a sum of nearly £4000 into my account. Obviously I was so confused and thought they had made a mistake so i contacted them and they explained the company had made a major error in HR and that the money paid to me was SMP as I should of got it in the beginning 🙄 because of this huge mistake, after speaking to the DWP they told me that I now owe them back my maternity allowance which totals nearly £6000 !! This was not my mistake but my company's and now I'm paying for it. .
What can I do about this??
My partner is an apprentice and his wage is nowhere near enough and because of the huge payment they gave me they've stopped our UC for up to 6 months? We can make it through the 6 months at a struggle but now we also have a 6000 debt to try and resolve!
Any advice?
Xxx

Why do you have a debt of nearly 6000. You should use the 4000 the company paid you to pay part of the 6000 then you’ll have 2000 left to pay.
Are you sure your company paid you the correct amount because the SMP and MA should total the same amount and you should have any debt to deal with

you should not have

SMP is in fact usually higher than MA once you add in the 90% of your full wage for the first 6 weeks. Maternity Action may be able help figure this out? It all sounds very stressful!! Are you a member of a union?

check the SMP calcs this should not be less than MA