Not Returning to Work, Teacher

[Dobbysocks]

Specifically interested from teachers only please.

It was always my intention to return to work post maternity leave and I therefore took enhanced pay. However, owing to some personal circumstances this may now be difficult.

My school shared no paperwork ahead of my maternity leave so I have no point of reference without contacting HR and potentially outing I may not return prematurely.

My questions are:

• If I choose not to return is it all of the occupational pay that is owed back? I’m UPS3 so this is a big chunk for me if so. (Which I would have but would rather not part with ideally)
• If I return for slightly less than the 13 weeks, is it still the entire occupational amount owed or just what I haven’t returned for proportionately. EG: return for 10 weeks, 24% less than expected therefore 24% of the occupational pay owed back.

Unfortunately you'll need to see the maternity policy to get your answers here. All your policies should be available without having to ask (e.g., if you use SharePoint or Google Docs). If it's an LEA policy, then you can call HR and just request to see the policy, Citizen's Advice can then help you interpret it.

Thank you. I did check on our internal servers. Everything bar the maternity policy was on there. I guess I could just request that as you say, though not sure if it will cover the exact answers but a good place to start.

I do know that the holidays are included in the 13 weeks so if you can utilise the summer hols then you'd only need to work for 7 weeks.

Yes Im aware of this bit but thank you anyway. I’d still come up around 3 weeks short unfortunately. So I’m unsure if that would mean needing to pay the entire occupational amount back or just a proportion of the shortfall. Would be great if these scenarios were in the burgundy book and consistent for all schools!

I got a new teaching job while on mat leave which should have been a September start. In order to complete my 13 weeks before 01/09, I'd have had to cut my maternity leave short, which I didn't want to do. My school (academy) told me I could leave in September and repay (I assume the full amount but we didn't discuss) or leave at Christmas and not. I floated the idea of just doing my 13 weeks and leaving mid term and surprisingly they agreed.

I know this is a slightly different circumstance to you but what I really mean is, I think you'll probably have to discuss your specific situation with your school as I think it's at their discretion whether they charge you or not. I know of a teacher at my old school who was billed the full OMP for being a few days short on her 13 weeks. I think she did manage to fight it though in the end.

You'll need to discuss with your school. My school were saying it's work the full 13 weeks or pay back the full amount with no reduction for the weeks worker. My friends school waived the amount completely. I've also heard of some schools setting up payment plans and others demanding the full amount.

You could take some parental leave perhaps? To get you through the 13 weeks?

assuming that you are employed by a state school and are not in a SLT role then you are covered by the burgundy book:

https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/burgundy-book-maternity-scheme-school-teachers

I’m pretty sure I was told if I took enhanced I had to come back for a full term or had to pay the difference between standard and enhanced money.
I knew I wasn’t going back and so didn’t take it.