Childcare vouchers been taken out of stat maternity pay

[Rosebug258]

Have just found out that my new company have taken £243 out of my statuary maternity pay that leave me with less than £300 and they won't give me any more money until the next payroll run...can I ask them to pay me my extra? Again?

This leaves me stupidly short this month

They also owe me £400 in expenses which has no signs of showing up

Have they accepted that it's an error or do they think they are supposed to/allowed to take childcare vouchers out of your SMP? Getting over that hurdle is the main problem.

From what I can gather they are not aware that the vouchers are additional to maternity pay! Trying to get an answer from payroll is proving rather hard as the 2 people i have spoken to have no idea, and no one seems to know what's going on. Am awaiting a call back

First person couldn't even find me on the system they have spelt my name wrong apparently

OK. I would start putting things in writing rather than phoning. I would suggest emailing your line manager and payroll, and HR also, stating that childcare vouchers seem to have been deducted from your SMP and you understand this is not permitted under HMRC regulations. Attach the HMRC guidance on salary sacrifice and SMP for their reference, and ask for the mistake to be rectified as a matter of urgency.

Realistically it's probably unlikely you're going to get the money back before next payrun to be honest, because they'll first need to check and make sure you are correct that they shouldn't have made the deduction.