In a nutshell, my employer is disputing my right to maternity pay. HMRC has ruled that I am eligible, and my employer is now contesting this on the grounds that they do not consider me to be an employee. (This is very contentious in itself). It is also irrelevant, as HMRC makes SMP provision for casual workers who fulfil certain conditions, and I have fulfilled all of them.
HR kept saying a meeting would not be necessary, so I had to email and write to point out the casual worker provision to them. Their replies always ignored that point. They just kept stonewalling and writing "but you are not an employee so you can't have SMP or contractual maternity pay."
Eventually I had a meeting with HR. I reiterated the point about provision for casual workers. They replied that although they had been paying employers' secondary NICs for me, they weren't actually liable to have done so, therefore they wouldn't have to pay maternity pay.
I then asked what the point of 10 years of Class 1 NIC deductions had been, and HR said "that's a legal question we're not going to answer."
HMRC are now sending in a local compliance team.
Your reactions please...