Taking over a year off work

[Samila]

Hi all

I am currently on maternity leave and planning on taking about 15 months off work. My employers are flexible and have said I can return to work when I am ready. I get statutory maternity pay - there is no contractual pay at my work.

Firstly - can I take 15 months off as maternity leave?? The additional 3 months as unpaid leave (as agreed by the employer)?

Would I be required to pay any statutory maternity pay back if I took over 12 months off??

Any advice appreciated

X

I'm no expert but I took just over 13 months off with dd. As far as I know there were no consequences to this (other than obviously zero pay after 9 months).

I hope this is the case - thanks

If you tag on holidays at either end (if you can), you can have around 14m off. I've been off since mid Nov '16 and will go back mid Jan '18 (14m) but I've been/will get full pay for around 10w of that (2w at the start of leave and 8w at the end).

Thank you - does anyone know if you are required to pay back statutory maternity pay if you take over 12 months maternity leave (excluding hols)? I am assuming not based on the response so far but wanted to be sure - thanks

SMP doesn't need paying back whatever you do, it's only additional occupational mat pat which can have the stipulation that you pay it back if you don't return.

you don’t get paid SMP for anything beyond 12 months. After 12 months you wouldn’t still be on maternity leave. You need to agree with your employer what type of leave you will be taking for months 13-15. I took extended leave after all of my maternity leave. I used accumulated annual leave with my dc1&2 and I took a mix of annual leave and unpaid parental leave over 10 weeks with dc3. Your return date from maternity leave with be 12 months from the date it started. Anything else after that is a different form of leave. X

But no, you don’t pay back SMP if you extend your leave as unpaid parental leave. Guidance states that is a possible way to use parental leave- straight after maternity leave.

You can take extra but it won't be classed as statutory maternity leave and you won't have the rights you accrue during statutory maternity leave either- unless your employer wants to give them to you.