Someone I work with claiming maternity pay but also working self employed

[CatJ21]

So a girl who works with me is currently on maternity leave receiving maternity pay from work. She was also a self employed wedding photographer as well.

Now she’s doing on average 1- 2 weddings a week whilst on maternity leave from where we work supposedly because she is able fit more in now.

Is this even allowed? I thought you couldn’t work whilst on maternity leave

If you wanted to know the law you can google it. Not hard to find.
What she's doing is perfectly legal, you just wanted to bitch

You can do it, I've done it myself :)

The company I work for pays 90% of my average weekly wage for the first 6 weeks and then unfortunately it's just statutory maternity pay after that (which is around £170 per week) :(

Fortunately I'm also self employed so I was able to do that too on my last mat leave and I'll be doing it again this time

If she was claiming maternity allowance then no, she couldn't.

She does exactly the same job as me same hours same experience so I can only assume she’d get the same maternity as me

My brother was getting married and wanted to know how much she charges for a wedding. I asked her a while back. Simples.

It’s really not that deep. I just wanted to know if it was allowed

I really didn’t want to bitch. But thanks for your assumption

That was in response to someone saying that maternity pay is rubbish. I don’t think £2000 a month is rubbish

The maternity pay is £2000 a month?

Why does it matter how much she earns? If it's her own business then I'm guess she wants to ensure it continues to run.

I had my own business alongside my full time job and continued to run that while on maternity leave,

Yes government advisor type job. Can’t really say much more than that

So what? Children cost money, childcare costs a ton. Maybe she wants to save, maybe she has debts, maybe she wants to buy a car or have a nice holiday, maybe she likes doing some work and not just baby stuff and maybe it’s just absolutely none of your business.

What were you going to do with the information if you had been informed it wasn't allowed?

Each job and maternity is treated independently.

If she got a new job it might be a problem. But as she had this job and her SE job before getting pregnant that’s just her working.

You can take maternity from one and not the other. Or both. Or neither (after the first 6 weeks).

So yes she can.

The not allowed to work is for your company. So if she goes over her KIT days with you then she stops that SMP. Not any others (as you can have multiple SMP for each job).

£2k per month isn’t great and my full time childcare at a local nursery was more than that, so it’s sensible that she is carrying on working in her other job. Given she will have been used to having photography money coming in before and might not be able to continue to fit in more weddings indefinitely, it’s a good idea to keep earning whilst she can.

Charging £2k per wedding doesn’t take into account the costs incurred with it and that won’t be her take home.

And how is any of this your business?

Not a lot if I’m honest

Yes, it is allowed. So long as that employment started prior to pregnancy (or the qualifying weeks, I can't remember).

I have two jobs. One is public sector, full time, entitled to maternity pay. Second job is a zero hour, casual contract with no entitlement to maternity pay, sick pay etc. When I was on maternity leave both times, I checked with Maternity Action and I was able to work my second job because I'd had it since before I was pregnant and wasn't entitled to maternity pay from it.

As compared to her usual wage?
so if she earnt £80k for example then £2k per month isn’t much to cover her usual outgoings

You don't know her circumstances or outgoings though do you?

My husband is a solicitor and we will still struggle on mat leave when I get to basic stat pay

Sorry but you really are coming across terribly bitter. I don;t even mean that in a rude way, more that you should maybe find the root cause of why you feel the way you do.

If she is used to earning more than 2k a month then that will be a drop and not what she and her DH took into consideration when getting their mortgage, buying cars etc never mind with the added expense of a child. We all want the best for our child and I think she sounds very smart using her self employed job to bring in more money for their child/family while she can.

She also will have spent time and training learning to be a good enough photographer that she gets booked for two weddings per week. You are also able to do that if you want.

You said 'not much' when someone asked what if you had found out it wasn't allowed, so you would have done something? Trying to bring others down does not make your life happier, and you don't get to decide how much money is enough for someone else's current financial commitments.

Not that this matters either, but it's a myth all solicitors are well paid. It depends on the sector and how many years you've been qualified for.