Maternity benefit and returning to work early query.

Charlie-Bravo

If a woman who has gone on Maternity leave and opted to return to work early, say after 12 weeks, is she to advise the welfare office of this and does the maternity pay cease?

If so, is there any incentive tax wise for early return to work?

Mr. Presentable

astrofluff wrote: »

If a woman who has gone on Maternity leave and opted to return to work early, say after 12 weeks, is she to advise the welfare office of this and does the maternity pay cease?

Of course. The welfare payment is to subsidise your loss of earnings through employment - not an additional bonus payment.

Charlie-Bravo

nice name nipplenuts and thanks for the clarification there.

Tell me, if this same woman is due say Dec 14th, and has 16 days holidays left in the year to take, can she leave work at the two week pre-due date and start claiming maternity benefit and and get paid for holidays concurrently?

Also the opposite at say returning on March 10th, claim maternity benefit until then, in which time she would have accumulated all holiday pay on this period?

misspiggy40

Last bit first, you accumulate your holidays while on maternity in exactly the same way as if you were working. You are supposed to inform your employer of your return date, so if you were going to take your holidays straight after your maternity you would have to got through your usual work channels. That is to say you cannot assume that that will be okay with your employer.

On the earlier bit, I am not sure. If your company has a use em or lose em policy at year end, you might lose your holidays if you don't take them before starting your leave. Essentially you cannot be discriminated against because you are pregnant, but whether you would get any additional leeway or not is another question.

misspiggy40

By the by, maternity leave is tax free. Whatever your employer pays you while you are on maternity is taxed in the usual way. What I am getting at is that if you are getting maternity benefit and your employer pays you something, for example a bonus, while you are receiving your benefit there is nothing at all wrong with that. Some employers pay the difference between benefit and usual wage but I see nothing to say that they can't pay you whatever you agree between you.

Jelena28

i whant going back to work early,i just whant know if ai gou back than ai losing maternety peimentt?i haw 2 month left for mai maternety