Employed & Self Employed - Maternity Pay HELP!

[SweetMummy911]

Hello ladies

A bit of background - I am a salaried employee through a company as Marketing Manager (30 hours a week) and of course I'm paying PAYE and NI contributions monthly.

I am also planning on registering as self employed this month in order for me to start doing some freelance work through a digital marketing platform. This will be sporadic work but still I've been advised to register and notify HMRC.

DH and I are planning on TTC in June 2018 - I know that I will be entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) through my employer however will my self employment status affect that? Will I be entitled to Maternity Allowance (MA) instead?

I'm confused so any help or advice will be hugely helpful!

Thanks

[delilahbucket]

You should stick with statutory maternity pay through your employer. The allowance for self employed people is less (you don't get six weeks at 90%) and if you go onto allowance instead of maternity pay, and your self employment isn't earning much money, then you won't get the full allowance anyway, only 90% (iirc) of your average pay. Not to mention how complicated it is applying for the allowance in the first place!

[delilahbucket]

Forgot to add, if you plan on doing self employment work while in receipt of SMP, check with your employer that you are allowed, as it may break the terms of your contract. As may being self employed while employed, also. You don't want to find yourself out of a job and pregnant!

[SweetMummy911]

Thanks delilahbucket for your advice - I spoke to DH and I think we are going to ride out my maternity leave (on SMP) and then leave my current office job and set up freelance... that way I get the best of both worlds!