Do you ve to pay SMP or salary back i you quit during maternity leave?

[Londonmamabychance]

I'm considering quitting my job during my upcoming maternity leave. My deal is that I get 4 months full time salary, and then the remainder of the SMP-entitlement. Does anyone know if I may be required to pay back SMP or the 4 months pay if I quit? It doesn't say in my contract, and obvs, I can't discuss it with work.

..apologies for all the typos in the headline! was meant to say "do you have to pay SMP or salary back if you quit during maternity leave"....butterfingers

My company pay 18 weeks of full pay, I have to go back to work for 26 weeks otherwise it has to be paid back. If we choose not to take the enhanced pay, for example if you're not sure if you are going back, then we get it as a lump sum afterwards, if that makes sense.

I work for a large corporate company and we get full pay for 5 months and don't have to pay it back if we don't return to work. Is there nobody in a hr type roll you could ask but get them to be discreet? Just say you're weighing up all options

I would imagine your employer will have a maternity policy, separate to your contract, that should detail out the terms and conditions.

If your employer has an enhanced maternity pay policy (ie. any pay over and above what is statutory), which is sounds like it does, you may be required to repay that if it says so in their maternity policy.

for instance, my employer offers an enhanced maternity package where I get three months full pay then 3 months half pay (ie. they make up the difference between what is statutory to what would equal half my normal salary) but it's on the condition I return to work and then don't resign within 3 months of returning to work. If I were to resign during maternity, I would have to pay back the enhanced portion of the package (that I had been paid up to that point).

I would get a copy of the maternity policy from HR.

As the posters above have said, it varies by company, but I don't think they can require you to pay back SMP. Anything on top of that is down to the company.

You will not be required to pay back SMP, but you may, dependant on your company policy, have to pay back the top up from SMP given in the first 4 months (ie 10% for 6 weeks, then everything above £135/week for the next 2.5 months).
There is no way to know without reading your company policy on enhanced maternity pay.

It' isnot an unusual question to ask HR for your company's maternity policy. This will outline your entitlements to pay, leave etc and any conditions such as repayment if you don't return. You need to ask for the policy to be sure of your position.

As others have said you wouldn't have to pay back SMP, as the company just claim that off the Government. It would depend on your contract/maternity policy if you had to pay back the enhanced. Most companies ask you to return for 6 months it seems, and then you wouldn't have to pay it back.

thanks everyone! I will do that, once I've actually announced my pregnancy : ) the thing is my company is very small and we don't even have a HR person per se, so I'd have to ask my manager, so no way of being discrete, but once I've announced I guess it shouldn't be a problem anyway.

They should still have a maternity policy. Most places do these days. The fact you know you're getting an enhanced package suggests there is a policy in place (otherwise you would just get SMP) and it is normally issued when you inform them your are pregnant.

I'm just about to move to a company that has about 15 employees and they have a separate document / policy for maternity.

Congratulations by the way!

This happened to me. It said in the maternity policy that you had to return for 6 months, or pay back the occupational maternity pay (which is anything they give you over and above SMP - you don't have to pay back SMP). I paid it to avoid going back to that shithole.

You shouldn't have to pay back SMP but you may have to pay back any occupational pay that you receive while on leave.

Sorry finished too soon, you can usually opt to not receive any occupational maternity pay if you think you are not likely to go back.

This is my second pregnancy, that's why I know about what I'll be getting, but last time was just told all verbally, and we didn't discuss what would happen if I quit during the mat leave.