Company car and maternity leave

[VapeVamp12]

I work for a small company (12 people total) and as we all run our own projects I have told my boss earlier than most about my pregnancy because I wanted to give him plenty of time to plan my work etc whilst I am on maternity leave.

He asked me for a chat today and said basically he was planning on giving my work to an admin colleague who works two days a week. My admin colleague is great at her job but I work five days a week and i'm an engineering project manager, I spend a lot of time out of the office. So very different roles / responsibilities.

I said I was concerned about this and is there any chance of him hiring a temp person to actually cover my role whilst I am away.

he said he would possibly consider this but can't afford to do that and keep my company car?! I'm a bit baffled to be honest but I don't know the law about all of this. I have been here 4 years and have worked hard to get new clients and retain existing ones. I'm worried now I will come back to no clients.

I was planning on obviously having my company car during maternity leave because I'm meant to keep all company benefits during leave.

Can anyone offer any advice?

As long as the car is for personal use as well as business use, then you’re definitely entitled to keep it. The only grey area I believe, is any car allowance. This is sometimes regarded as remuneration, and so they’re allowed to stop that.

As long as your car is a benefit rather than a work tool, ie you have it for personal use, then yes you keep it while on maternity leave.

Don't worry about how he'll cover your role, that's his problem to sort out. You've advised him what you think will be needed and raised your concerns, that's all you can do.

If the issue is cash flow, HMRC offer help to cover maternity leave. They can offset it against tax I think. Tell your boss to get some advice.