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Work

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Original poster

Working/costs whilst receiving maternity allowance

9 replies

stulka · 05/04/2011 20:26

Hello,

I'm self-employed, receiving maternity allowance at the moment. A new opportunity has arrisen but I wonder what are the rules around working whilst receiving MA? I know I can have 10 days keep in touch days. Can I incure costs during though? Can I do market research, for example and acquire costs for publications, etc? Any advice would be appreciated.

And if I work for those 10 days, will I loose MA during that period? Do I need to tell anybody?

Thanks a lot for any insight.

OP posts:

TalkinPeace2 · 05/04/2011 21:10

date the invoice for after the ma ends....

Novascotia33 · 05/04/2011 21:14

your keep in touch days are paid days, and they don't effect your stat mat pay, they are on top of it. hope that helps.

TalkinPeace2 · 05/04/2011 21:19

how does k i t when you are self employed - the laptop is always lurking in the corner of the living room !!

mranchovy · 06/04/2011 13:04

The rule is that you can only do any work on 10 days - even if it is only 10 minutes this takes up one of the days. This rule doesn't fit the self employed who can both earn income and incur costs without actually working, and can often keep their income ticking over by just answering a couple of emails which in theory rules out your MA for a whole week.

Everybody knows that the rule doesn't fit so don't think about it too hard, like TalkinPeace says just don't take the piss by billing a client for more than 10 days of your time during your MA. If you have some other kind of business (an online shop say) you are going to need to come up with a creative way of demonstrating that you are not working.

Original poster

stulka · 07/04/2011 13:34

thank you for your answers. What about incurring cost? Does it need to tie in with the day I've worked? I'm thinking about travelling/ calls/ publications etc. Should I proportion them and do they need to tie actually in with the 10 days I will be charging for? does anybody actually check this? as you can see I'm new to this all practical help is much appreciated.

If I delay invoicing until after MA finishes (September) - is it normal practise that I could still get paid anyway before then? I know this will depend on the contractor but any advise as to how to approach would help. Thanks.

OP posts:

mranchovy · 08/04/2011 19:34

The law says that you may lose your MA if you do "any work in employment as an employed or self-employed earner, or fail without good cause to observe any prescribed rules of behaviour".

As far as I am aware there have not been any regulations made which prescribe any rules of behaviour (prescribing rules of behavior for mothers? You'd think that came from law made in 1892, not 1992 ) so as long as you do not do any work as a self-employed earner you should be OK.

In practice what may happen is that some jobsworth with at best a superficial understanding of the relevant legal framework an official from the DWP might ask to see your business bank account. They shouldn't be too worried about money going out, but if there is anything coming in they are likely to say you have been working and you will have to repay a load of MA :(

Original poster

stulka · 14/04/2011 20:17

many thanks mranchovy. love your editing work :-)

OP posts:

PermaShattered · 11/05/2011 21:27

mranchovy I'm so confused now re KIT days! I've just posted a query on another thread on KIT days!

I was self employed until converting to a Ltd Company. I'm claiming MA but of course the info i gave the benefits agency was re my work up to when I had my baby as a sole trader. I now have a this company which was set up in March but is not yet actually trading.

What's your reaction to that?! Where do I stand?

mranchovy · 11/05/2011 23:06

Firstly I have recently come across what the 'rules of behaviour' are - basically you are expected to take care of your health, which in the circumstances seems reasonable.

Now as far as working while receiving MA is concerned there is no difference between working in self-employment or as an employee (of your company). Of course it is much easier for a company to continue to receive income while you are on ML, although if the company issues invoices for work which it is reasonable to assume that you have done then you need to declare that you have done it.

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