Maternity pay dilemma...!!

[BoogieBean]

Hi all

I was hoping some of you could give me some advice as I am in two minds at the moment. I have also posted this on the Employment Issues thread...

I am currently 23 weeks pregnant and I am really unhappy where I work. I work as a receptionist, however this is not your standard receptionist role (on my feet a lot of the time making teas/coffees, clearing up after the whole office washing up, loading/unloading dishwasher etc, constantly doing extra hours as supervisor is always on holiday). I feel more like an assistant rather than a receptionist.

I brought my maternity leave forward 1 month as I am so unhappy and struggling being on my feet all the time. I was signed off in Feb for a couple weeks for stress/anxiety relating to my job. Now, my dilemma...I do not want to go back to my current job after maternity leave but will do if I cannot find another job whilst on leave. My employer offers Enhanced Maternity Pay, where they pay 50% of your salary for 9 months with the incentive that you return to work for 6 months otherwise it will have to be repaid. I know this money would help me a hell of a lot, especially as this is my second child but I really do not want to go back for 6 months.

I'm stuck in two minds, I really don't know what to do. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Take the enhanced, but try not to spend it unless you are desperate, then if you decide to leave pay it back. If you stay, you've got a nice pot of savings!

My employer does the same thing - offers enhanced maternity as long as you return after BUT they don't state you have to go back on your same hours. I know someone that took the enhanced maternity, and put in a flexible working request to go back working two days a week instead of full time which was accepted. She had accrued 30 days annual leave during her maternity leave, so spread these over 15 weeks, and only had to end up coming back working two days a week for about two months.

Worth looking into to see if anything could possibly be similar for you?

Thank you for your replies When I joined the company last year straight from maternity leave, I joined on a full time contract but as childcare costs were ridiculous and my supervisor was constantly off (meaning I had to cover several events on my own as well as manage the desk) I requested to go down to 3 days a week, which my employer agreed to and I was extremely grateful for. However, so much has changed for the worst since I started and it looks like it is going to get even worse, hence not wanting to go back. I only get 12 days annual leave now I'm part time but that sounds like a good idea AhoyMcCoy so I'll try and see how that works out

I'm watching this with interest. My employers will also pay half pay, but there is so little difference between that and smp that it hardly feels worth it for a job I really am struggling to like

I'm not sure if this is standard or not but I found a clause in my maternity pay T&C about then enhanced part of my pay. I had to sign a disclaimer to say that if I didn't return to work for a minimum of 12 weeks then I had to return the enhanced part of my maternity pay. There was also an option on the form to request that they retained the enhanced part of my pay so that if I chose not to return then I didn't owe them anything. If I did return then they'd pay me the money they'd retained.

It wouldn't hurt to ask but it depends whether you want to plant the seed in their mind that you might not return.