Maternity pay

[WorriedSoul25]

Hello all,
Please can some one help me. I went on maternity buy didn't qualify for full maternity pay so I got SMP INSTEAD. After a 6months I handed in my notice. Using my outstanding holiday as leave . 3 months later I got a letter stating they made a mistake and overpaid me. I am someone with integrity and if truly I did see that I was overpaid I would have paid them back , I don't have the money it has been spent. They want £500.66 back I can't pay it back . Any advice please I worked at the NHS BTW....

Is it the annual leave payment they're wanting back? Had you accrued the annual leave?

They can't claim back SMP, but they could ask that you pay back any holiday pay if you had taken too much.

I don't see how they can say they overpaid you if you were only getting SMP? What do you mean by you used 3 months holiday - 3 months is quite a lot of holiday, most people won't accrue that much over a year never mind 6 months. How much time did you take off in maternity and how much time did you take as annual leave? That will make it easier to give you some advice - it sounds like maybe they have given you more annual leave than you were entitled to but hard to tell without a big more info.

Sorry don't know where I got 3 months from but it does sound like they gave you more annual leave than you were actually entitled to and it's that they want back. If it's NHS you may be able to negotiate paying it back in instalments.

Sorry I must have typed this in a hurry, I meant 3 months later I got a letter to say I owe them some money. My last working day was July 18 and I had a letter come through the post today . When I said holiday I met 3 weeks holiday I had left . I just it as my notice period. From the letter it was their fault for not notifying the appropriate team that makes payment I had handed in my notice.

They want SMP BACK.

Were you not entitled to SMP for some reason? How long had you been working there for when you got pregnant?