Returning from Maternity and furlough

jenniewren304

My daughter ended her maternity leave on 24th of April as stated in her return to work letter.
Shortly before that she was sent an email to say she would be immediately furloughed and not to return to work.
She has just received her first furlough pay and it was calculated on her maternity pay over the last year. Then given 80% of that. 
Everything I have read states she should have returned to her normal wage for her pre-maternity contracted hours. Then be paid 80% of that.
Am I right?
 

Jeremy535897

jenniewren304 said:

My daughter ended her maternity leave on 24th of April as stated in her return to work letter.
Shortly before that she was sent an email to say she would be immediately furloughed and not to return to work.
She has just received her first furlough pay and it was calculated on her maternity pay over the last year. Then given 80% of that. 
Everything I have read states she should have returned to her normal wage for her pre-maternity contracted hours. Then be paid 80% of that.
Am I right?
 

Rather a long bit of guidance for employers, but I think it explains the issue:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-maternity-pay-manually-calculate-your-employees-payments

There is a section on coronavirus and furlough:

"Employees furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

These rules apply where the employee’s period of family-related statutory pay begins on or after 25 April 2020.

If your employee was on furlough and you paid them with help from the CJRS during any part of the relevant 8 week period, there are different rules about how you work out their AWE.

This is to make sure your employee’s eligibility for SMP and earnings-related rate of SMP is not affected if their wages are lower than normal because of being furloughed.

The earnings used to work out their AWE for the part of the 8 week period that they were furloughed will be the higher of either what they:

• actually received from their employer
• would have received from their employer had they not been on furlough

Where it’s not clear what the employee would have received, a helpful starting point is the reference salary used to determine how much you can claim through the CJRS. You can find guidance on working out 80% of your employees wages through the CJRS scheme.

You should also consider payments the employee was due to receive in the relevant period that would have been classed as earnings. This could include:

• bonus payments
• commission payments

No changes to how you work out their AWE will be needed where:

• you’re claiming the employee’s wages through the CJRS but you’re topping them up to full pay at your own cost - the employee’s earnings will not be lower than they would have been
• as a result of the coronavirus crisis, during the relevant period you agreed a reduction in pay with your employee outside of the CJRS"