Leaving job after maternity leave

[DW4618]

Hi all,
I will try to keep this as brief as possible....I had a baby in June 2018 and my paid SMP is due to end on March 1st 2019. I have had a number of return to work meetings as I knew we could not afford for me to take the full year off (3 months unpaid). I wanted to go back part time as we cannot afford full time nursery fees on my wage. It makes more sense for me to work less and spend more time with LO. Work have offered me no part time option so it was either leave or go back to my old position which I cannot do so I have had to resign.

I have been told that I am entitled to be paid for any outstanding annual leave from last year and then any annual leave from January to March (when paid SMP runs out) this year. Am I only entitled to the annual leave until March or should it be until June as that would be my full year off on mat leave?

Hope this makes sense!
Thanks in advance.

You continue to accrue all your contractual benefits, during maternity leave so you continue to receive any contractual benefits until the date your contract of employment comes to an end, but in your case this is at the end of your notice period.

Unless you have a 3/4 month notice period, this is why you’re only getting annual leave until March

If you've resigned, then they will only have to give you AL until your leaving date (resignation date + notice period).

To get the AL until the later date, you'd have had to remain on Maternity Leave and handed in your notice the correct number of weeks (your notice period) before the end of your maternity leave year so that your last day of work would be the last day of the maternity year.

You accrue annual leave while you're on maternity leave. Once you leave the job, you won't accrue annual leave for it.

It depends what termination date you gave when you resigned. You accrue holiday up to and including your last day of employment, so to get holiday until June, you need to specify in your resignation letter that you are giving notice to terminate your employment with effect from that date.

”To get the AL until the later date, you'd have had to remain on Maternity Leave and handed in your notice the correct number of weeks (your notice period) before the end of your maternity leave year”

No, it’s perfectly possible to give more than the minimum notice. Plenty of people decide they will not come back after maternity leave and tell their employer that, stating that they will remain employed until maternity leave has ended.

Thank you for your replies. I have given my resignation date as the 1st March. I guess I could have given a later date - 1st June, but then I wouldn’t be able to get another job before June as technically still employed by current workplace.