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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Maternity leave?

9 replies

JumpingForJuly · 03/03/2011 19:06

Hello,

Have posted this in the work topic too as so unsure about it all.

I'm 22 weeks pregnant working part/full time-ish ranging from 10-30hrs a week.
Not a job that I'm finding difficult but I really dislike it and want to leave as soon as I can so 29 weeks pregnant.

I will be 29 weeks pregnant on the 21st of April, so have asked if I can use my 21 days holiday to start my maternity leave.
So techincally finish at 26 weeks on the 1st April.
I have had no answer on this and I asked last Friday so need to chase it up.

But what I dont understand is how long you can take off for maternity leave? I was speaking to someone and said I would hope to take a year off and not go back but they said I might have to pay my maternity pay back?

Sorry for the long rambling post, I just dont understand how long you can take and off and how much of it is paid time off.

Any advice would be appreciated as you can tell, Im clueless!!

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jezebelle · 03/03/2011 19:12

You can take a year, but only get SMP for 9 months. If your employer offers more money than the basic SMP then you either have to return or pay the extra money back.

ethelina · 03/03/2011 19:20

Yes, SMP is currently 6 weeks at 90% of your normal pay, and 33 weeks at £124 or thereabouts, making 39 weeks, or 9 months from the start of your Maternity Leave. You are entitled to take anywhere between 2 weeks and 1 year off work.

Some companies offer more than this, usually on the proviso that you return to work for a time or pay back the extra money.

You are entitled to keep the SMP regardless. If you choose to resign at the end of your maternity leave you dont have to pay any SMP back. You are also entitled to be paid for any leave you accrue while on Maternity Leave, which should be the same as if you were still working there.

CBear6 · 03/03/2011 19:40

Where I work you must work a months notice so if you plan to leave at the end of maternity (like I do) then you need to go back for a month afterwards or else they'll ask for the extra maternity pay back.

There are ways around it thoughZ. You still accrue annual leave while you're off so if you have enough holidays you can take those and class them as your notice. When my maternity leave ends I'll have four weeks of holiday built up so I'm going to take them at then end of my maternity leave and hand my notice in on the first day.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 03/03/2011 20:19

Jumping yes, you can take a year but what you get paid will vary wildly depending on your employer, so as HR or whoever is in charge of payrol to let you know how much you get paid and how long for.

And yes, you will probably have to pay some of it back if you don't return so it might be worth asking how long you have to go back for or how much you will have to pay back.

daimbardiva · 03/03/2011 22:11

Usually you'd have to go back for at least 3 months or you'd have to pay your maternity pay back (my contract says 6 months as I am part0time). Check your contract, or if that is unclear check with your HR dept

inbetweener · 04/03/2011 10:02

Really you need to speak to your HR Dept and find out if and how much OMP they would pay you.
If you are not coming back you should tell them when you leave so that you dont end up having to pay back any money. SMP isnt a lot though so you might want to look into that and work out how much you would be living on.

The other thing of course, is that you would still have 12 very long weeks to go. I assume you havent any other children ? You may get terribly bored especially if baby goes overdue.

Original poster

JumpingForJuly · 04/03/2011 11:24

No shes my first but we move in the middle of April and have soo much to do in terms of packing, moving, decorating that I'm hoping to get some of the rooms sorted before July.

Thanks for all the advice will speak to HR, the people who I work for dont make it easy to speak to them but Im going to make it my goal for today.

Thanks for all the advice

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Original poster

JumpingForJuly · 04/03/2011 11:24

Sorry Im losing the plot- writing thanks for the advice twice!!

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Sparklies · 04/03/2011 19:43

With my last employer you didn't have to pay anything back if you didn't come back (and they had quite generous maternity pay - the statutory plus full pay for 1 month for every year you'd worked there) so it's not a given you will have to pay anything back. The detail will be in your contract or a "staff handbook" (perhaps you have a work intranet you can check?) somewhere.

I took voluntary redundancy whilst on maternity leave - right at the end of my extra paid time fortunately. I didn't have to pay back anything AND they had to pay me the rest of the SMP I was due up to 39 weeks. I was very lucky indeed!

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