Exam marking while on mat leave?

[tiggy2610]

Huge thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this for me. An entire evening of searching online has left me none the wiser so I am turning to the wise people of MN.

I currently work in HE, not in a teaching role. I did, however, used to be an FE teacher before leaving the job for a better work life balance. For the past 4 years I've been employed as an examiner for AQA and have marked Psychology A Level papers during the summer the past few years. I've just had my invite through to mark this years AS papers in June but I will 5 months into my 10 month maternity leave by then.

My first thought was the money would come in handy but would I be able to manage it with a 4 month old to look after. It wasn't until DH asked me if I was allowed to take on paid work whilst receiving SMP that I even thought about it.

So, oh wise ones, will taking on examiner work affect my eligibility for mat pay? I think when the marking is going ahead will be my last month of additional maternity allowance before dropping down to SMP alone, this makes me think it might be dodgy territory?

Will you be using any of your KIT days with your main job?
You are allowed to work and be paid for a total of 10 Keeping In Touch days during your leave, and doing this marking should count as it is keeping you part of the world of education.

However that is 10 discrete days on which any work at all is done. You cannot do 20 half-days. Doing 1 hour of work uses up one of your days as much as doing 10 hours.

I did marking for AQA during mat leave. Never even thought to question if I should be doing it or not!!! Just about managed it from a time point of view, marked when baby was asleep. Didn't affect mat pay. AQA sort out the tax bit so I presume inland revenue have the records and I was never contacted by them telling me I owed a load of money!

What is your contractual relationship with AQA? Are they your employer? Are you currently employed by them? (even though you only mark once a year?) - the key element being whether you were employed by them during your Qualifying Week. Or do you do so on a self-employed basis?

I point you in the direction of: www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance#statutory-maternity-pay-smp

" More than one employer
If you have more than one employer, you may be entitled to SMP from each one (so you could get more than one lot of SMP). The same is true if you have more than one contract with the same employer, if your NI contributions are paid separately for each contract."

" More than one employer
If you have more than one employer, you may be entitled to more than 1 lot of SMP. Although you may want to stop work in each job at the same time, you can still go on working longer with one of them if you feel you can do so. Your MPPs with each employer would then start at different times."

"Your SMP will stop if after the baby is born, but before the end of the Maternity Pay Period, you work for an employer who did not employ you in the qualifying week. It is your responsibility to tell the employer paying you SMP about your new job. You must do this as soon as possible, and make sure you return any SMP payment you get that covers the week you started work and any part of the period after you resumed work.

If you do any work in a self-employed capacity during your MPP, then such work will not affect your SMP."

"You can work under your contract of service for the employer paying you SMP for up to 10 days during your MPP without losing any SMP. These special days are known as KIT days."

"If you have more than one employer, Employer A and Employer B, and you are entitled to SMP from each of your employers you can have 10 KIT days for any work you do for Employer A. You also have 10 KIT days for any work you do for Employer B."

I have to say, the above does not explain what happens if you qualify for SMP from Employer A but NOT from Employer B, even if you were employed by Employer B during the Qualifying Week

Maternity Action is another good resource to look at.

Thanks all! This is a minefield - all sorts of things I'd never even considered.

pjd interesting to hear you did marking too. I'm sure a few ex-colleagues of mine did marking for both EDEXCEL and AQA while on mat leave but not at all sure how they did it or what their financial status is like, obviously.

tea I know I'm not eligible for SMP from AQA, but I'm not sure if the grey area between taking on work as a, say, seasonal worker, or if it would be classed as self employed work. I have turned down marking in the past and it has not affected my status with them and they 'invite' you to take on the work rather than automatically sign you up.

My friend, who was on maternity leave from the NHS, carried on with her teaching role at the local university. It was only a few hours during one term.
Nothing bad came from it.

How do they pay you? With payslips? PAYE? Or are you registered as self-employed with HMRC for that income? (I'm guessing not based on what you've said so far).
If it is self-employment, you are fine - if it is effectively a "new" employer (even though you've worked for them before), then I don't think it is ok.
Worth contacting someone like Maternity Action or maybe Citizens Advice Bureau for some help clarifying?

Maternity action are very good with advice. If you do marking for AQA you will probably get away with it, as I don't think your employer will find out, but it depends on whether you are asking this, or asking what is the right/lawful thing to do.

I resigned from my employer to take a new job part way through my mat leave, despite the fact that I told them I was going to a new job they still paid me my maternity pay and nothing came of it. As I had already told them, and therefore couldn't be accused of lying, I kept quiet. So I had mat pay plus income from a new job, no one seemed to give a monkeys.

I came across this thread whilst looking for clarification myself. What I found earlier is a paper published by NUT in 2013 which states that exam marking is counted as self employed & therefore exempt from affecting SMP. However the woman I spoke to earlier in the mat benefit office never mentioned this but said it was fine if I used my KIT days but kept a record. I'm going to ring back tomorrow to verify but I have faith that a major organisation like a union would fact check before publication. Also those who are SE are not going to let their businesses grind to a halt whilst they have a baby.

In a side note she did say that you are still eligible for smp over holidays even if you are still on full pay.

I was under the impression exam marking is self employed so you are ok from a SMP point of view, however ensure you check your own contract of employment in relation to paid work whilst in this job. Some organisations have a clause to refrain people from doing any other work other than there role.