Second job whilst on maternity leave?

[bombombo]

Hi,

I am on maternity leave at the moment, I received enhanced maternity pay for 6 months and SMP for 3 months. Both have now ended so I'm just on leave but not being paid any more.

I've been offered some sort of one-off, contract type work that would be finished before I go back to work. Assuming my bosses are happy for me to do this (I will ask permission as per my contract), is there any reason why I can't do it, or any financial implications?

From what I can find online it seems to say that I'd stop being paid SMP if I take on another job, but since I'm not being paid any more anyway, I'm hoping I'll be able to go ahead?

Is there not a good chance that your current employer might be a bit passed off if you are now free to start working but are choosing not to work for them?

If it’s a case of this new job being more flexible, or with fewer hours, could you not sort out a phased return to work on the same basis?

@ImWell it's not similar work, and my usual job isn't something I can do from home ad hoc around my husband's shifts/when the baby is sleeping, but this one off contract work is. I am doing a couple of KIT days and a phased return to my normal job closer to when I'm due to return to work.

Also, I'm entitled to maternity leave from my usual job. Why would they be pissed off that I'm taking it? I want to maximise the amount of time I have on leave at home with my baby, I don't want to return to my usual job any sooner than I have to.

Why would they be pissed off? If that’s a serious question it’s because others are covering so that you can spend time with your baby, looking after them, not so that you can extend the leave as long as possible while working for someone else.

They wouldn't be pissed that your taking your maternity leave, but the fact you want to work for a different company while on maternity leave may piss them off.

I've now spoken to one of my bosses informally about it and they're not bothered, as expected. My usual job isn't something I can do ad hoc from home and I don't have childcare to cover my usual work shifts until ML ends. It's also a different type of work, so not like I'm off to help out a competitor.

So moving on from what my usual workplace might think, if anyone knows the answer to my original question I would love to know!

Is it a self employed job? Doing other work that isn't self employed would normally end your maternity leave/pay

I mean it sounds iffy to me, but if you're gonna don't you need to find out how it affects your NI contributions for one thing.

workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/what-work-can-you-do-during-maternity-adoption-parental-leave/#:~:text=Not%20all%20contracts%20allow%20employees,so%20would%20be%20maternity%20discrimination. Think one of these questions answers yours. Looks like its probably OK

Thank you for the replies, @dementedpixie it does seem like it's ok from that link, thank you! Boss is going to speak with HR and payroll people to make sure we haven't missed anything, but it will probably take a while to hear back.

I know this post is older, but I just wanted to let you know that I did this a couple of years ago. I waited until my SMP had stopped and then did some work for my MIL until I officially went back to work. It didn’t cause me any issues, but I did need to call HMRC to work out my tax code. So I would recommend you call them to explain the situation and make sure your tax is right!

@Kate120 thank you so much! That's really helpful.

To be honest I don't massively need the money from the second job (although obviously it would be nice), but the experience would be good for my CV so I'm keen to try it if it doesn't have any negative implications.