maternity allowance and keeping in touch days

[bassingtonffrench]

Hi, I plan to take maternity allowance when my baby is born. I've qualified before, all straightforward.

However, I've been offered 10 days work during my maternity leave by a University. Could these qualify as my 'keeping in touch' days? I would be paid via their pay roll on a temporary contract I think.

Also, if the work went slightly over the 10 days I know I would forfeit my maternity pay for that week. But my question is do I forfeit my maternity pay for the rest of my maternity leave? or just for that week only?

Obviously it affects whether I agree to the work or not as it is not worth loosing all my maternity leave for!

Hi, I'm on ma at the moment. I'm doing ten days of self employed work over the next couple of months and that seems not to have had an effect on the ma. The people at jobcentre plus said after the eleventh day they would look at continuing it at a reduced rate or stopping it completely depending on whether my work pattern had returned to its regular state or not. Don't know if that helps you or not really.

Thanks Wisteria.

Surely if you do work over the mat period it would only have an effect on the maternity pay if you actualy told them about it?! I want everything to be above board but unless you have a different system to me I don't see how there is any automatic adjustment?

Can you just walk into any job centre plus and ask advice about this stuff?

Yes it is based on trust. There is a tel helpline in the docs from DWP. I found them helpful.

Once you get to day 11 they consider you as back working, so it likely that the MA will stop.

It would be worth checking that you can be employed during this time. It might be neater to be self - employed, as they could them be considered KIT days.

Your MA doesn't need to be declared on your accounts I believe.

My NI (class 2) contributions were meant to automatically not be taken during MA but they continued!

yes I will find it useful to call a helpline I think. Will google.

It might be possible for me to be self employed rather than employed but I thought for KIT days it wouldn't matter.

once you get to day 11 of keeping in touch is Maternity allowance effectively over? Problem is I'm working for a University so once the semester they need me for ends there is no more work for me and I'd forfeit the rest of my maternity leave.

I know. It should also be full days, each bit of work is considered a day....

I think the theory is sound, if you are on mat leave you shouldn't be really be "working" but as a freelancer myself who is just finishing on MA I know it is possible to do a little work and still be mainly on mat leave and the nature of our work means we have to keep a hand in really.

My query over working is, if you are receiving the 1 form of mat pay from the Government, I am not sure you can then work for somebody else as you are meant to be on mat leave. I assume you will pay tax & NI at the job, so in theory they could possible cross reference and work it out etc - although I imagine this is highly unlikely.

I have heard of people mention the fact employed people used to be able to do self-employed work and still be paid mat pay but I think that changed.

But I am no expert! I did find the documents about it rather obtuse I have to say! Somebody on here suggested ringing the helpline a couple of times to ensure the info you are given is consistent and therefore hopefully correct. Make sure you make a note of the time & their name should you need to refer back etc.

Good luck.

Thanks Margo, love the name!

I know the spirit of the law is that you are just 'keeping in touch' with work but as a self employed person I feel that is exactly what I will be doing.

I have the choice to do the 10 days work as a self employed person or as an employee (albeit a temporary one) so I'll ask about what's best when I call the helpline.

Thanks for the tip about calling them a couple of times. I think in these non straightforward cases the risk of getting inaccurate advise is quite high! and i don't want to make a bad decision. like doing loads of work with a tiny baby for no pay!