Company Car rights while on Maternity leave?

[skyedog]

I have a friend about to go on maternity leave. She works for a large retailer as a window dresser. She has a company car, but they have said she has to give it back while she is on maternity leave. I have a company car with another company with similar terms, and I understood it was my right to keep the car (I did for my last maternity leave) I found some info on the equal opportunities website, but am otherwise stuck for how to help her keep her car. Does the way the car is taxed/defined make a difference to whether she can keep it? Any and all help gratefully recieved.

It is her right to keep the car during the period of "ordinary maternity leave", i.e. 26 weeks.

The regs state that she must be no worse off whilst on ordinary maternity leave than she is at work, other than the reduction in pay.

here

I'm still on maternity leave and my employer checked with the Federation of Small Business who advised that I was entitled to use the car as I will still effectively "employed". So she shouldnt give it back

Thanks for the fast replies. The company she works for say that the car is classed as for business use only, but she can also use it for private usage. I think she pays them for private petrol, but I'm not sure. Does this make any difference.

Well I kept mu company car through both my Maternity Leaves (OML only), they pay for Tax, Insurance & maintenence but I paid for Petrol - except fot the 50 miles a month that was business, which I had to claim back.
I think that is pretty standard

Possibly if it is a "tool of the trade" then they can, alhtough I think it unlikely, she needs to check her terms and conditions . If not they should definitely compensate her financially to the value of any car allowance while on ML if she gives it back, not sure about AML though.

I think it does make a difference if it is a 'job' car or a 'company' car i.e a perk of the job. She will know which of these it is depending on how she is taxed on it. Mine was a company car and so I kept it throughout my maternity leave and then bought it from them when I decided not to return to work.

i think it depends on whether it is a "pool" car which she has just happened to have sole use of, ie she doesn't get taxed as a benefit in kind (tell her to look on her P11D)

if it is a company car then she gets to keep it for the OML 26 weeks. it depends on the company whether she gets to keep it if she takes AML. i did.