IPA and maternity pay

Fel78ix

I have been asked by OR to pay £457 a month for 36 months to clear my debt, however I am almost 7 and a half months pregnant and due to start maternity leave beginning of June, do I need to continue paying the same amount even tho I will be earning less, no one has made it clear to me what happens!

When I return to work after mat leave I will only be working 3 days a week with family looking after baby as I can not afford child care so how will the IPA work then?

PippaGirl_2

An IPA is an agreement between the two of you and if you do not agree for whatever reason you are able to try to negotiate with the OR. If you were to be in the negotiating stages up until June when the first changes happen then an IPA may not be set up if you had no surplus.

However at the moment it does sound like you have a significant surplus and it may not be possible to still be negotiating in 2 months time. Could you start your maternity leave earlier?

At worst if an IPA is set up now or soon at the agreed amount then when your income changes and your expenditure will too, you just inform the OR and send in a new updated SOA and a new amount is agreed or the IPA is suspended if there is no surplas. These suspended months still count towards your 36 months even if no payment is made. When you return to work part time, a new SOA will be completed and submitted and a new amount for the IPA set up, if there is a surplus.

HTH

Fel78ix

I can't start my maternity leave earlier, the OR has been aware of my maternity leave start date since I filed. The problem I am having with the OR is a lack of information coming from them just forms telling me what to do without anything to explain them.

I plan to go and see the OR first thing on Monday as this is causing me some stress and my BP is already high and I need to clarify things with them as its also giving my partner a headache who has just spent the last 18 months clearing debts left to him by his ex wife