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Original poster

Statutory paternity pay - nothing for freelancers

12 replies

nomoreheels · 22/03/2011 08:33

My DP found out recently that his contracted employment won't be extended after the end of March. He was working 3 days/week contracted to them, and had some freelance work around this, but not enough to sustain us.

I am due 3 June and while I am on ML, I am on a even further reduced income as I was sick during my qualifying earning period (yet another unfair situation, but long story so won't get into it here!) Needless to say things are very stressful for us.

He is working round the clock to bid for as many more freelance opportunities as he can. His current employer may offer him some work but strictly on a freelance basis.

I thought I would research his entitlements to Statutory Paternity Pay so he could at least have 2 weeks of solid time with us, but it turns out he is entitled to nothing because he will probably be 100% freelance at that point. At least SE mums-to-be can claim something. He pays full taxes just like anyone else - why the discrimination?

Yet another unfair policy (and I keep discovering them) which makes things harder for us. He doesn't have any guaranteed work yet so we can't really set aside anything, although we are being very frugal, and because he now has no choice but to accept any work that comes in, he can't really say he's not available after the birth - it just doesn't work that way for freelancers as I'm sure all of you who work this way know.

If his employers had extended for even 6 months, he would have qualified for something and would have had some proper time off. Nice of them to wiggle out of it (and they barely gave him any notice either) but offer him work the backhand way!

OP posts:
CaringForPod · 22/03/2011 09:19

My husband isn't entitled to any either, as he won't have been at his current job long enough when the baby is born. They are being good though and giving him an extra week's paid holiday to take later on.

valbona · 22/03/2011 09:23

I agree!

I am SE and the statutory money was a godsend (for a while I thought I'd get nothing - was a real relief!) - but was then shocked that DH didn't get the same when he pays his NI etc just the same. I wonder whether the new paternity leave bill addresses this at all?

Be interesting to hear from anyone who knows more - or whether there's ever been any effort to change it.

CaringForPod · 22/03/2011 09:28

Might be worth posting this in the employment issues section. I got some great advice on SMP and fixed-term contracts on there.

Original poster
nomoreheels · 22/03/2011 11:08

Thanks all. Caring, as far as I can see there is absolutely no current option for fathers who are SE - only mothers who are SE can get anything. If he was still under contract (an "employee") then he could ask for the 2 weeks paid by them.

I'm sorry to hear that your husband didn't qualify due to being in a new job though. That's rotten. You'd think for the sake of 2 weeks' payments it should just be universal!

OP posts:
CaringForPod · 22/03/2011 14:53

Yeah, it sucks but nothing we can do. Just one of them there things. Sorry to hear about your situtation too nomoreheels, like you say, not quite sure why it can't be universal. Sigh.

nunnie · 22/03/2011 15:06

Same her DH is a self-employed contractor and even if he is on a 6 month contract he isn't entitled to SPP, he took 2 days off with DD and a week (I had to have an EMCS) with DS, as we couldn't afford for him to take anymore time off as someone else said, it's not fair but it is just one of those things.

In our situation DH gets no holiday or sick pay, uncertainty of work after contract finished, working away from home, but this is reflected in his pay so we can't grumble.

My DH and I were aware of this when he decided to work this way and he decided that the good out weighed the bad for us.

msbossy · 22/03/2011 18:20

In case you have another, or anyone else can benefit from this: DH managed to handle this, and getting a mortgage approved, by starting a company and making himself an employee of that company. That way he has a regular wage paid out of the company's funds, and can pay himself SPP and as an employer claim reimbursement for the SSP.

nunnie · 22/03/2011 19:36

Now see my hubby already does that but the accountant told him he would be on dodgy ground if he paid himself, sick pay, holiday pay or SPP from the company funds. Might also be because he is a Managing Director of said company and the sole employee of it though.

nunnie · 22/03/2011 19:41

That sounded snappy, sorry never meant it too. Might get DH to double check this time round having 2 weeks of him after the baby comes would be lovely expecially when I will have a 4 year old just starting school and an 11 month old too.

nunnie · 22/03/2011 22:10

Ignore my post, as I asked DH and he said the reason he doesn't do it is because he has to earn the money anyway, so by paying himself for time off out of the company account then the company account would be short come tax bill day and he'd only have to work longer hours to put it back in.

msbossy · 23/03/2011 10:57

Ah, I see! Yep, I don't think DH claimed the SPP with DD1 because he decided that the paperwork to claim to back from govt (so that, as you point out, the company finances wouldn't be effected) wasn't worth the bother. If he's anything like my DH it's all worth it for them not being miserable due to office politics!

nunnie · 23/03/2011 11:00

Exactly the same by the sounds of it, he doesn't like paperwork to be honest, and the less he can do the better for all of us.

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