Paying back maternity

[Carlew4]

Hi .... I'm looking for some advice and I'm hoping someone here may know the answer! I'm returning to work soon after a period of maternity. My company pay additional maternity, do I was fortunate enough to get full pay for 24 weeks, and smp for a further 13. I've just been offered another job which is perfect for me. I'm aware that if I don't go back to my old job for 6 weeks, I have to pay back my additional maternity pay. What I'm hoping to do is go back for 2 weeks and then give my standard 4 week notice, thus working my 6 weeks. Is this something I could do? Or do I have to work the required 6 weeks before I can hand in my 4 weeks notice? I'm unable to get access to the employee handbook to clarity until I'm back at work.

Completely depends on your terms of your company.

Mine and my friends don't let you work your notice to get out of repaying.

You need to get hold of the relevant policy.

Also only 6 weeks, are you sure this isn't 6 months? It would be more common to have a 6 months loyalty retention clause with such a generous package. You need to check carefully.

Agree that you need to check your company policy. I was able to use my accrued annual leave to serve as my notice period x

Notice doesn’t count at mine but holiday does, can you return earlier but use annual leave so you aren’t actually there?
I had over 8 weeks holiday to take before I returned at end of mat leave due to all the accrued bank holidays etc.

Failing that I’d tell new employer your notice period is 3 months (it is actually 3 months at mine).

Meant to add, our mat pay is less generous and the retention period is 3 months.

Are you sure it’s 6 weeks? That seems very generous coupled with a generous maternity pay. Our policy is 3 months, which can’t be taken as leave or notice given for significantly less company pay. You’ll have to ask your HR for the policy and if it’s still not clear have that conversation with them.

It will depend on the terms of your contract or policy.

Going back for two weeks and resigning and going on leave is a real pain from a management perspective so I’d talk to HR about your proposal and they may allow you to leave without returning and repaying to avoid the disruption.

Alternatively you could explain situation to new employer and ask if they’ll cover the repayments. Many companies will.

As other say, I would check its definitely 6 weeks. Also check how much accrued holiday you have.

If you have alot of holiday, you could technically return early, to cover some of those weeks. As holiday is usually counted, but notice isn't.

Are you sure it's not 6 months, I've never seen a policy where it's less than 6 months

This has made me think- in teaching you have to go back for 13 weeks i.e. one term (on full pay, more pro rata if goes PT) to avoid having to repay 12 weeks' worth of occupational maternity pay which is 50% on top of SMP 🤔. I've never thought of the maths of that before but it's not a great ratio is it...

What a great company OP works at with such generous terms for women!

My maternity pay is the same as yours and it is 6 months not 6 weeks