Am I screwed ?

It is best to speak to your employer as it could be a genuine mistake by payroll. If it’s been deducted again then surely it can’t be in leui of holiday days.
I have worked in payroll and mistakes to happen in the software which might not have been picked up on if it didn’t affect your net pay.

thank you I’ll be giving the a call in a couple of hours. Hopefully it doesn’t mean I have to return to work sooner than planned

I should say they’ve marked me absent 4 days then paid me 4days annual leave so it nils itself out

The tax year ends in April so if you were to take holiday in May it would come off the new tax year, they may be using your holiday that you have left over for this year so you don’t lose it?

I was told I can carry over all my 2023/24 annual leave to take at the end of my mat leave. I’m just worried that with the reflection on my payslip the government would take it that I’ve returned to work and stop my SMP so I’d actually have to start working in March. Which we aren’t prepared for.

check with your employer and ask them. And yes you should be able to carry over unused annual leave to the next year as you’ve been on maternity. Once you end your maternity, you can’t go back on it so you defo need to ask them about it and they should be following your forms that you submitted pre going on maternity and need to notify them of any changes with at least 8 weeks notice.

I was told I was only allowed to carry 20 days over so they might be using any additional but if you’ve been told you could carry all over then contact them.
If it’s holiday pay it shouldn’t affect SMP though!

@Lizzie I didn't think they could tell you how much you could rollover?

Update: I spoke with them in the afternoon. They said that they were doing a clear up and the 4days documented was from the days I took just before starting my mat leave in July that they didn’t process at the time 🙄. So hopefully all should be ok if they’ve potentially messed up my remaining maternity leave they’ve said they’ll be in contact with HMRC to notify them of the situation. Phew 😮‍💨 so it remains I’m due back to work at the end of May and still have my 2023/24 annual leave days which will roll over. Thank you ladies also. I was a mess in the morning. Just not mentally prepared to return to work especially when everything is set up for June. Xx