Will I have to pay my maternity back?

[Swanlake123]

I fortunately work for a company that offers a very good mat policy - 6 months full pay, then 3 months half pay. However in my handbook it doesn't state that if I weren't to return I have to pay it back? Is this normal - do most companies make you pay back your maternity if you don't go back if they offer more than SMP?

Some do. Most I know say you have to return for a minimum of 3 months. Though clearly this differs company to company.

Best bet to know for sure is to contact HR.

Yes if you get more than SMP most companies want the money back

Yes most companies will make you pay back anything over SMP if you don't return

I would certainly expect it to be in the policy if you are required to pay it back under any circumstances, but in any case they have to notify you before you recurve the money of any terms and conditions relating to it.

Certainly depends who you work for. Do they have their policy online where you can check it? If not, definitely call HR for info.

The company I worked for paid above SMP, and I accrued holidays while on leave. So when I didn't come back to work at the end of my 12 months I got a nice little payout too, which was so helpful.

You always get to keep the SMP part of what they pay you - if you don't go back, you will get to keep what you would have got if they just offered SMP.

On a related note - I know that you accrue Annual Leave while you are off. If you didn't intend to return, but calculated your accrued Annual Leave days (say 4 weeks) and gave notice that your employment would end that number of days after the end of Maternity Leave and that you wanted to tag the accrued annual leave onto the end of maternity leave, would that mean that you got that 4 weeks at full pay which then could be used to pay them back for a good chunk of the returnable portion of the maternity pay?

I also know that any in-kind benefits you get during normal employment (eg. car, phone, childcare vouchers etc) have to be continued during mat leave and cannot be reclaimed/recharged if you don't return to work.

I didn't have to pay back my maternity pay (above SMP) when I didn't return to work. It was a lot less generous than yours though!

Fish, it depends on company policy - annual leave doesn't have to be agreed when you want it so if your employer wanted you back in work for whatever reason, they wouldn't have to agree to you taking your leave at the end of mat leave, particularly if you had already handed your notice in.