Changing jobs after mat leave

[espoleta]

Hi everyone, some advice.

I’ve been headhunted for a new job which is a perfect fit for me in terms of career development, location, flexibility and salary. I’ve only been back at my current job for 6 weeks after mat leave. There is a clause stating that I would need to pay back my enhanced maternity pay if I leave within 6 months. Does anyone have any experience quitting during their payback period of their enhance maternity?

My gut feeling if that it would be incredibly hard to come after it.

Additionally the way my return has been dealt with hasn't been the best (employed someone else, diminished responsibility, unclear role, a bit of leaving me out of staff events ect). Is it worth calling acas and getting some legal advice?

Thanks

It would not be incredibly hard to recoup the money you owe them. If you failed to pay they would take you to small claims and get a CCJ against you.

If you have a genuine issue with your treatment since your return to work, then raise it with your employer.

Well they'd deduct as much as possible from your final salary I imagine. Don't know how 'enhanced' you're talking about, but often employers are open to instalments etc.

If you might need a reference or have reputational concerns or might have contact with your employer in the future, those are all reasons not to walk away and not meet your contractual obligation to pay it back.

If you have had concerns about how your return has been handled, have you raised these properly? If you're thinking about getting advice from Acas presumably these are quite serious concerns?

My gut feeling if that it would be incredibly hard to come after it.

^You can’t be that stupid to actually believe that. They will come after the money believe me I have seen it happen on numerous occasions.

To those asking if I've raised it, I have. I have also requested to speak to the hr person, so said she'd get back to me. Still nothing. I've chased.
Meeting the ceo in two weeks to discuss, once again I am meant to be seeing her fortnightly. This would be our first meeting. (I've been back for 6 weeks)
Basically they have diminished my role and hire in someone to take a big bit out. I was then told I would manage another part of the business and the day I went back to work it changed again and the remit was much smaller.
I've been excluded from company updates and social events.
It's all been a bit of a mess returning. I was gone under 6 months specifically to ensure I would come back to the same role and they have made me various promises to ensure I came back after 6 months rather than take longer, but now I'm in everything has changed.

@greendale17 could you go into further detail on how they recouped the money? Deduct from final pay or notice period ect?

Payroll manager here, I've recovered mat pay from literally hundreds of employees over the years for both public and private sector employers. Standard procedure is to deduct as much as possible from final pay as flowery said (and penultimate pay if notice period is longer and final pay won't cover it). Then if any balance is remaining, seek to recover that directly from the employee.

With an outstanding balance after leaving, depending on amount involved/financial circumstances/how polite or rude the employee is, then I may agree to it being repaid over a reasonable period (ie 2 to 4 months ish) but if no reasonable attempt to repay is made then I'll escalate to small claims. Have to say, virtually everyone pays up before it actually gets there. I always have my paperwork in order so there's basically no defence.

If the final pay is enough to cover what's owed then I won't offer an extended repayment timeframe because i dont need to. That might sound harsh but ultimately my job is to get my employer's money back - other payroll managers may be more lenient, but not any I've worked with. This is day to day stuff in payroll, it's not hard to get the money back as long as you've got your ducks in a row re contracts and repayment clauses etc.

The other stuff does sound crap and I'll leave the HR experts to advise on that, just wanted to answer your q re the usual process around recovering mat pay.

They will take the money from your final salary. A guy i worked with did this with training cost he owed, and his final salary was £5 after deductions!

Super helpful @nerdsville thanks.