Back to work after maternity leave?

[Kate123cl]

Hi all, tried to google this but answers weren't very clear so hoping someone may be able to help on here!
I'm only 9 weeks pregnant currently and absolutely resent my job! I've been here just over 2 years. I'm planning on going on maternity leave in December and then back to work whenever I need to go back does anyone know how long you have to be back in work to still qualify for maternity pay? Is it 3 weeks? Is it 6 months?if I take maternity leave and then not go back will they deduct my SMP? Hope this all makes sense!

Hi, have copied and pasted my answer to your question in pregnancy here too!

I think you're getting mixed up between statutory pay and any enhanced your company offers. You don't have to go back at all to get SMP - it's yours, whether or not you go back. However, most workplace enhanced schemes that pay above SMP do require you to go back for a certain amount of time - mine is three months, but it will vary from company to company. However, if you didn't do this all they could demand back is the enhanced pay over statutory - the SMP portion isn't theirs to claim back from you. Does that make sense? So you can't Google an answer because it depends on your company - you need to find their own policy and what it says about enhanced pay (if any) and the conditions attached to it.

@LisaSimpsonsbff ahhh!! That makes perfect sense I'll find out what our policy is! Thank you very much