resigning after maternity leave.... Benefits

[belltrick]

Hi,
I am not a regular contributor to this board... Tend to hang out on litte refluxers due to my kids health issues. Buut if anyone can help me I would be incredibly greatful.
Both my kids have allergic collitus, caused by Non igE food allergies. As a result of this the care of my youngest is not easy, I have had several false starts with childcare so have concluded that I will have to give up my job to look after them. I have had back to back ML as they are only 15 months apart. My work have been pretty good but I want to tell them I am not going back.
2 complications

1. I want to return company car at beginning of april as it is not great for the kids car seats safety wise and the taxman is hammering me for having it.

1. My private health insurance is covering my sons medical bills from gt ormond st at the moment. I have paid for it until the end of june, so want to use it for as long as possible.

In short, can i give notice now, to finish when my ML finishes on 1 july, whilst surrendering the car and keeping the health insurance, or do i just need to keep quiet and maintian the staus quo until a month before the end of my ML. I am an honest person and feel that now i have made the decision I want to tell them so they know what to expect, but obviously my sons health comes first. It is an 18 week wait to see his consultant on NHS, if i ever manage to get a referral. Many thanks for reading this, sorry it is so long.

What's your contractual notice period?

When you say you have paid for the health insurance - do you pay upfront or monthly? If you pay monthly - you could phone the insurer and ask what happens if (say) you change jobs to one that doesn't have health cover - what would the premiums be if you paid yourself? Because the health cover is a P11D benefit as well so you will get taxed on the benefit of that as well as the car.

I have to pay an upfront supplement for the childrens cover. Because it is a corporate policy rather than a private policy it will be termianted if i leave.
My contractual notice period is 3 months if i move to another position within the industry (not relevant as i wont work in the industry when i finish) or 1 month for all other circumstances.
I want to give them notice now, to finish end of june, but don't want them to termitate my contract in the elapsing perid iyswim

I am taxed on the HI but that doesn't worry me, the premium for my little boy would be £550 a year... And 450 for dd, with her condition excluded! I have already paid £275 for july to end of june 2012 so really need to finish the policy year.

Also, if i tell them I am not ocming back, but don't give notice in writing how does that leave me (vulnerable at a guess)?

You can hand the car back without handing your notice in - assuming that you are not required to have a car in order to do your job and it is a "perk" car. Just tell work you don't want the car anymore - do you get a cash alternative instead? The only problem you might have is if the car is under lease and if so you might not be allowed to hand it back until the end of the lease period or the date you leave.

Also don't forget that april is start of a new tax year - if you are not going to be working in tax year 2012/13 then the car may be your only taxable income in the year and so 3 months use may not actually cost you anything if you have no other taxable income in the year.

My tax code is something like minus 2k, if they say i can't send the car back i will have to accept that. I was planning to work a bit cooking from home, so essentially go self employed, so will have some tax to pay, I just didn't really want a car that I hate and is not safe for the kids to mean I am paying more tax. The car was sent to me as a tide over, the old codger that has it before me dropped dead from chain smoking, it has 2 years to run on the lease. In hindsight i should never have accepted it and taken the allowance back in october.

Nothing wrong with handing your notice in early if you want to do that, as long as you specify that your termination date will be the end of your mat leave.

I normally advise against doing it to avoid any arguments about benefits/holiday etc

What you could do is hand in your notice in April, and at the same time ask if you can relinquish the company car benefit with immediate effect, but will maintain your other benefits as normal until your termination date.

Thanks so much flowery, that is exactly what I needed to know. From that post I think I will say that I think it is unlikely that I will be able to go back, but will let them know as soon as I am in a position to do so. I really apprecaite everyones replies. Xxx