Employer not returned SMP1 form

carlos1973

My question is what happens if the Employer does not return the form to us within the 28 days?
A quick back story, my wife has been on maternity leave for the past year and is currently on annual leave that she accrued whilst on maternity leave. We are pregnant again and she is due to start her maternity leave in January. My wife took the full 52 week entitlement of maternity leave and as such her qualifying weeks fell during the time that she was unpaid. Our understanding is that because of this she did not meet required minimum pay in order to be eligible for SMP and would need to claim for MA instead.
My wife has not had her SMP1 form returned and we have not been informed whether she will be entitled to SMP or need to claim MA by her employer.
We notified her employer in time and sent the MAT B1 form along with a written request for maternity leave by registered mail. We have the proof of posting and the 28 days passed on the 31st December.
My wife has just been sent her payslips for this period and 2 future periods. Unfortunately the last payslip should have any SMP included on it and it is because of this that we can conclude that she is not being paid SMP. These payslips were produced on the 29th December.
My question is what happens if the Employer does not return the form to us within the 28 days and does not inform us of their decision within 7 days?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

Darksparkle

First thing I would do is call them and ask.

carlos1973

Sorry should have put that we're planning to email them when wife returns this afternoon.

They are notoriously bad for not following procedure and trying to blag their way out of things.

To have 100% certainty of where we stand is always best.

Darksparkle

My understanding is that if you still receive no decision you should report it to HMRC.