Can you work (self-employed) whilst on maternity leave?

[kayjayel]

I work part-time in NHS (for 5+ yrs) and due in June 08. HR said I get 12 mths with money throughout (I think its SMP for last 6 mths).

I've also been self-employed for last 6 mths on 1 day a week - can I go back to doing this part-time during my maternity leave. Or does earning stop my SMP? Or mean I have to go back to NHS? Its kind of the same type of job.

Does anyone know? I'm trying to work out budgets and it would make a massive difference.

TIA

kayjagel you are not entitled to SMP for the whole 12 months off, you only get that for 39 weeks. So if you are receiving some pay during that last period it is contractual maternity pay you are entitled to as an employee of the NHS, not what youa re entitled to on a statutory basis.

For SMP you can work up to 10 days for the employer paying you SMP without losing SMP, but if you work for a different employer (ie yourself) you lose it. However as we are talking about contractual maternity pay rather than the statutory basic, I would say you need to ask your HR department what the rule is. If you have been doing this normally while working anyway, you may find they don't have a problem with it. Many contracts have a clause whereby work outside your employment has to be approved and not conflict with your main employment. I have no idea whether your NHS contract would contain a clause like this or obviously whether you have checked or not, but worth bearing in mind.

here is some information about the basic statutory maternity pay and it's conditions. I would suggest you talk to your HR contact and also have a careful read of your maternity policy as well.

Thanks a lot answering. I've had a look at the website and I'm still confused. HR were clear that they've got new instructions for babies after April 08 which works out that the SMP is extended past the 39 weeks. They didn't mention contractual pay. But I only heard about the extended pay on Woman's Hour ages ago, and now I can't find anything to corroborate that on the internet, so I'm a bit worried I've imagined it.

It was this bit that was briefly mentioned in the working families website that made me think I might be able to earn some extra cash during my mat leave: -

Working for another employer

If you work for another employer (employer B) before the birth you can still get SMP from the employer (employer A) who is paying your SMP. If you work after the birth for employer B and you were not working for employer B in the 15 th week before your baby was due, your SMP from employer A will stop on the Saturday before you start work. However, if you worked for employer B in the 15 th week before your baby was due, you may work for employer B without affecting your SMP from employer A.

You can do self employed or voluntary work without any loss of SMP. During unpaid maternity leave, you can work for another employer unless there is a clause in your contract limiting any other work.

I have to admit I find all these 'if X plus Y before Week N-21' a bit hard to follow. Oh, and HR generally give me a minimum of three conflicting answers (and completely screwed up pay last baby) - hence turning to Mumsnet!

Good grief, confusing isn't it?

Let me have a bit more of an investigate and get back to you a bit later on.

Thanks, you're a star!

I can only find information that SMP will be extended to a year during 2008, I can't find confirmation that it will be April, as far as I know and can find out, the date for that hasn't yet been decided/approved.

Have found this about more than one employer both after and before qualifying week.

Do you have a limited company for your self-employed work? What is the actual status, how are you paid? Check here for information to decide whether you are truly self-employed or employed by whatever company you actual do work for one day a week.

You may have seen this about atypical workers, but I can't see anything about being both self-employed (if in fact you genuinely are) and employed.

So if it is another employer for which you were also working at the crucial qualifying week, then you can work without it affecting your SMP from the NHS. However, whether it will affect contractual maternity pay over and above SMP is up to them. As I say, I can't find any information saying that the changes to SMP are happening 1st April and I would say almost certainly that if that were the case, there would be plenty of information about that available by now, as obviously that would affect women who are pregnant now. So as it stands, if you are paid the whole length of your pregnancy, that is contractual maternity pay over and above SMP so any conditions on it will be set by your employer.

Whether or not the HR dept is rubbish and contradicts itself or not, you will be able to see the maternity policy that applies to you and check it for yourself. I don't know how you access policies in the NHS, whether there is an intranet available for you to download policies or whether you need to get a physical copy, but you will be able to do that and read it carefully yourself so that, at the very least, any discussions you have with HR are fully informed and not completely reliant on what they tell you.

Hope that helps, I might well keep browsing for more information about being self-employed while receiving maternity pay from an employer, for my own interest and knowledge as much as yours!

Kayjagel have found what I presume you found on the working families website, saying that self-employed work will not affect SMP you receive from an employer. So it seems assuming you are genuinely self-employed (see link I posted about deciding this), your SMP should not be affected. However I can't find any actual official guidance stating this, there is no source quoted on the working families factsheet (which has spelling mistakes and all sorts, not adding to its credibility I have to say!). I'm sure their facts are right, but I would prefer to see somewhere more official stating that, and I haven't found it on any of the usual govt websites.

I am going to keep looking!

Flowery- SMP isn't going to be extended to a year in 2008. The government put out an announcement a few months ago that it wasn't even going to be 2009. HMRV have responded by saying that they're working to 2010www.hmrc.gov.uk/statutory-notices/paternity-leave-pay.htm

Sorry OP, your HR department sound like they're a bit behind.

HMRC obviously, not HMRV...

Thanks Ribena, must have missed that announcement and all I could find when looking for the OP yesterday was info on plans to extend during 2008.

thanks!

You're welcome.

I think that they're realised that all this 'sharing maternity leave' business is a bit more complicated than they realised and that 2008 was a bit of a long shot! At least now I know that if I have a stint of maternity leave in 08 or 09 I won't just miss out on the new leave. I'm certainly not hanging about til 2010!

ribena, thanks. I'm going to assume my HR are wrong and its the 39 weeks thing. I'm not even going to contemplate the complexities of sharing mat leave.

On the working self-employed - one person said he thought it wasn't on - if you're okay to work in one job (and its pretty similar) then you should be able to go back to the other. On the other hand someone else said that given that I have two part time jobs (1 day a week self-employed, I think; 2.5 days NHS), then it shouldn't be the NHS's business what I do in my days that I don't normally work for them. So I still have no idea. But if its 9 mths off not 12 mths then I might just not worry about it and go for a full 9 mths with no work, rather than 12 mths with a little bit extra.