Is it legal to do some self-employed work

[TabithaTwitchEye]

Whilst on paid maternity leave from main job?

No. Otherwise it's assumed you could just go back to your regular work.

I think so?

Yes. If you are freelance/self-employed you can.

My main job is in the NHS, but I also see some patients privately (completely separate to my Nhs work). I was thinking about still seeing s couple of clients whilst on maternity from my Nhs job. So, a couple of ours a week, nothing more.

Yes, it's legal.

Sorry posted too quick. It's legal because it's a seperate role.?

In my place of work it is in my Ts and Cs that I must declare to my employer if I take on other work. So it's less to do with whether it's legal and more about complying with employment contract. If the NHS has a similar clause then you will need to let your manager or HR dept know.

If you take on other work, how are you declaring the income to the tax office? If you are taking cash or other form of payment and not declaring it, that's definitely not legal

Are you claiming MA for this self employment?

Yes if you are on SMP or an employer maternity package you can I think, just not if you are claiming MA.

Unless it's against your employers T&Cs.

My private work is of course declared to the NHS (it's extremely common practice to take on private patients), and does not contravene my contract in any way. Tax is declared through self-assessment.

But are you claiming MA for the self employment?

feels you are deliberately avoiding this question

I would have thought so, it's not like being on the sick

Sorry, I'm not intentionally avoiding! No, it hadn't occurred to me that even could claim MA for the private work. It wouldn't be worth it really, I only do a maximum of three hours a week at the moment; I'd want to continue during mat Leave to keep it ticking over.

I think I looked into this once fir an employee. If you do paid work during maternity (apart from a kit day) your maternity leave is considered to be at an end. The NHS might not mind but they will be claiming back your smp from the government and eventually HMRC will catch up with you and your employer and will want the stat mat back. So no, I wouldn't.

This;
www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance#statutory-maternity-pay-smp

States explicitly that

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

So it's fine.