Working whilst on maternity

[charlotte8]

Hi

I just wondered if anyone knew if I need to tell my employers that I am doing separate self employed work while on maternity leave? Technically I am still employed by them.
Xx

 

[My_First]

It will depend on your contract. However you cannot claim SMP and work as self employed.

 

[charlotte8]

Really? Has it changed? As I did self employed work while on maternity leave last time I had a baby and still got SMP? Any help please x

 

[Smiler82]

I'm self employed - you get Maternity Allowance instead of SMP. With MA, you can work up to 10 days and still get MA, and I believe it's the same deal with SMP. They call them "Keep in Touch Days". But once you've worked your 10 days, you have to tell them and they'll stop the payments.

 

[My_First]

The question here is not whether she will get SMP or MA, but can she claim SMP and work self employed.

Apologies one cannot work self employed (over and above kit days, if self employment is their main work), so you can work in a self employed capacity while claiming SMP.

You will have to check your contract as to whether you will need to tell your employers (or in fact is not forbidden) or not, and if it's a sufficiently different industry to not be a conflict if interest.

 

[My_First]

You will also have to register self employed and do a tax return etc.

 

[Snow Owl]

I'm not certain. I had two jobs last time, one full time and one part time. I got SMP from my full time job and was still allowed to work as many hours as I liked with the part time job while receiving SMP.

I'd say call the tax office and ask

 

[Pearls18]

My understanding is you cannot work while claiming SMP, which would make sense, the government is paying for you to have leave to look after your baby but if you are then earning money from another avenue and claiming money to stay home with baby it is completely defeating the point of it? It's a type of benefit at the end of the day?

 

[Mysunshine]

Hey there! I think you need to post this question on a Q&A aite for legal advice. For example, Lawguru or Quora. Keep us updated!

 

[sue_88]

You CAN still work self employed whilst claiming SMP. You can't get maternity allowance though in addition. And you also cannot work (employed or self employed) at all(bar 10kit days) if on maternity allowance (which I know isn't your situation).

DWP says: “If you do any work in a self-employed capacity during your maternity pay period, then such work will not affect your SMP”.

Just check your contract about whether you're allowed to work other jobs outside your employer, if no word then you don't need to tell your employer.

 

[Pearls18]

You CAN still work self employed whilst claiming SMP. You can't get maternity allowance though in addition. And you don't need to tell your employer.

Do you know why self employed is different to any other kind of employment? I've never looked into self employment but I know when I applied for a new job after DS1 I couldn't have started and carried on claiming SMP.

 

[sue_88]

I believe it could be something to do with national insurance....but not 100%

 

[Pearls18]

Ah right ok, sorry OP my reply really wasn't much help lol

 

[Snow Owl]

You CAN 100% work while on SMP as I did it last year.

It was explained to me that I was receiving SMP for being on leave from job A, it was my choice to continue with job B during that time

 

[Pearls18]

"If you work for another employer (employer B) before the birth you can still get SMP from the employer (employer A) who is paying your SMP. If you work after the birth for employer B and you were not working for employer B in the 15 th week before your baby was due, your SMP from employer A will stop on the Saturday before you start work. However, if you worked for employer B in the 15 th week before your baby was due, you may work for employer B without affecting your SMP from employer A.

You can do self employed or voluntary work without any loss of SMP. During unpaid maternity leave, you can work for another employer unless there is a clause in your contract limiting any other work. "