Hi all,

I am currently on Maternity leave after having my lovely lil son James and i am due to return back to work after 9 months of maternity leave. We have recently been think that we would like to try for our second child and for he/she to be in the school year directly below James.

My questions are really (and any help with this would be so much appreciated)

* if i stay on Maternity leave for 9 months and decide not to go back right at the end would i need to pay back all my SMP?? As someone has said that that is the case

* If i did go back but really wanted to leave (if above was the case) how long would i need to work for in order not to pay this back?

* ALTHOUGH if i was for example not able to find child care in time for 12 months and they let me go i would not have to pay it back...is this the case?

* If I go back to work after 9 months how long do i have to wait to get pregnant? A friend has said that basically i need to be there around 8 weeks before i can get pregnant again...surely work cannot dictate this? I understand they will see me as an 'incovenice' but how otherwise do familys manage to have two children close together? Is there a set time that i would need legaly need to wait before becoming pregnant and being able to take maternity leave again?

We are just trying to get an idea of when to start trying for our next lil bundle of joy and trying to weigh up things in our minds and my work would be a big factor really

As i say thank you in advance for any help with the above xx

Hi.
There is a bit at the top of the Home life, relationships & finance section which has a link to brilliant information.

I had a quick sqizz and what it said was that to maintain all your rights it is very important to go back to work between mat leave for at least 1 day.

There is a brilliant bit that answers your question perfectly, I would try and capture the jist for you but it is a bit complicated to write down.

SMP you dont pay back i do beleive, its only if your employer pays you anything extra on top of SMP that would would need to pay back from not returning to work.

You don't pay back SMP but it may be in your contract that any additional pay from the employer may be called back if you do not return to work. If it is not clearly stated in the contract or mat policy then they can't take it back.

I am fairly sure that you don't have to pay smp back if you decide not to go back to work

If I don't go back to work I have to pay back the money I got while on mat leave. But if I went back for three months then quit I wouldn't have to pay it back. You need to ask about this as I think it is different for every workplace and depends on your contract x

If you just got SMP, you don't have to pay it back. If your employer paid you any more on top of that, then they are entitled to ask you to pay it back.

you wouldnt have to pay your smp back hunni, also if u went back you could get pregnant immediately you wouldnt get smp though you would get the government maternity pay which i believe is slightly more.
i think its 20 weeks though if you was to wait

Lou
xxx

SMP and the MA are the same amount. The difference is that if you work you pay tax and national insurance on it. If you don't you get to keep the whole amount . Pretty damn unfair if you ask me - getting extra cash NOT to work.

I didn't know this!!

If your total earnins come below the tax threshold can you claim back though?

That really puts a scupper on the whole thing if you automatically love 20% of it to the tax man!!!