Maternity Leave and Employer Provided Accommodation

[WilmaTheSeal]

Has anyone had any experience of going on maternity leave and their employer being funny about them staying in their tied accommodation? From what little I can find in the internet, it seems that, legally, women can stay in their accommodation during maternity leave. My problem is that there have been no women in my workplace in this position and I will therefore be a sort of test case. I'm not sure if my employers are enlightened enough not to try and pull a fast one on me.

Every benefit you get from your employment other than salary has to be continued during Maternity Leave so yet you should be allowed to stay there. But is it safe an suitable for a child to live there? What kind of accommodation is iit?

I know 2 people who have done this; one was a housemistress at a boarding school and the other a vicar. Both stayed in the accommodation without a problem.

While you are on mat leave you are not unemployed, so your employer is BU.

My accommodation is entirely safe and suitable for babies and young children. Plenty of male employees have children but they didn't need to take maternity leave so I have been a bit unsure of what would happen to me.
Thanks for the examples, Pottering. That makes me feel a bit more easy about things.
I know that technically I am entitled to keep benefits, I just don't want to have the hassle of fighting for what I am already entitled to.
I work in a very male-dominated environment.

Well then you should definitely be entitled to stay put. You remain the postholder for your job while you are off and should not have to move out temporarily.

Totally theoretically - I wonder if this principle could be successfully challenged by the employer if the tied accommodation would have to be used by the maternity cover replacement person as an intrinsic part of doing the job. I don't know how many lock-keepers or lighthouse keepers there are who are female and of childbearing age but they may have a trickier argument on their hands.