SMP much higher than enhanced maternity for 6 weeks - employer pocketing difference

[username131024]

Hello

Fortunate position that I would get high SMP due to qualifying period being a bonus period. Employer offers enhanced maternity pay. However it seems my employer pockets the higher SMP and offsets it against 6 months full pay. It means I get much less than SMP for the first 6 weeks, although I get paid more than SMP after that period.

My question is can an employer benefit where an employees SMP is higher than their monthly salary - rather than giving the employee the SMP directly for that initial period. I.e. my employer isn’t topping my salary up to 100% from 90%, they are reducing my entitlement significantly to bring it down to 100% of salary.

Happy to answer clarifying questions.

Your company only receive SMP from the government, they can NOT reclaim any enhanced SMP.
So unless you are being paid less than SMP every week your employer is not keeping any money from you.