Leaving my job

[charlottesweb87]

Hi I am planning on leaving my job and not return when I am due to start my maternity leave at week 35. I have worked for the company as a manager for 3 years.

I was wondering if anyone else left their job and if they still got Statuary Maternity Pay? I work in an independent company and want to let the owner know my intentions soon. I am currently 19 weeks pregnant.

Hope someone can give me some advice on this

As long as you have worked for the company for the required length of time (I think 26 weeks upto the 15th week before birth) you will get SMP.

There is no need to tell the company that you do not intend to return. You can go on maternity leave and hand in your notice a month (or however long your notice period is) before you are due to return. This way you will still accrue holidays while you are on maternity leave which will be paid when you resign.

For personal reasons I actually resigned from my position 13 weeks before my first child was due. I lost out on holidays pay any other company specific benefits but I did get SMP from the company as I had met the conditions for it to be paid.

Hope this helps

Just wanted to add that there are lots of knowledgeable HR people on the employment issues page who would be better to help if you have any specific circumstances concerning this that you need more in depth advice on.

Thank you that is very helpful advice. I will just have to decide when to let my employer know then. Extra holiday allowance sounds appealing!

Do not hand in your notice before your baby is born. Keep your options open. You can discuss a non return at a later date.

Yep I think I am just going to give my employer my formal letter of when I plan to start maternity leave and will hold off on letting him know I am leaving for good. I think I will give my notice a month before I am due to go back. Thanks for advice!

I would second not resigning until nearer the end of your maternity leave. This is something I'm considering too. If you do get any occupational maternity pay you will need to pay it back but my intention is to put it to one side and just pretend I'm only on SMP then if I don't go back its there to pay the, off. If you don't get any then you don't need to think about it! But yeah hang on and get your holiday pay!

Where I work there's an option to receive the occupational maternity pay as a lump sum if and when you return to work.

You'd def be entitled to smp as you've worked there three years.

I was quite open that I would probably not be returning to work (so my immediate colleagues were informed) but did not formally hand in my notice until the last possible date under my maternity policy. This way I got all my holiday allowance accrued over the mat leave paid as a lump sum at the end of my mat leave. They always expected me to work to contract, no exceptions, so I felt I was entitled to hold them to the same.

They knew I wasn't returning because I rejected the occupational maternity pay on top of SMP and moved 200miles away but until I handed in my notice I had the same rights as any other employee.