Can I do this paid work whilst on maternity leave?

[Cherryjampot]

I think the answer is no but just in case…

I work full time for Company A. I’ll soon be on enhanced maternity leave for six months, then SMP for three months, then unpaid for two months (I can’t afford the third month unpaid so will go back to work after eleven months off).

A couple of times a year I do a day of paid work for Company B. This is an entirely separate business to Company A but they know about it and are happy for me to do it in ‘work time’ and be paid for it. (in other words, they don’t make me take annual leave to do the work or anything like that.) Company B pay me for these odd days through PAYE.

Company B have asked if I can do a couple of days for them again next year. One of the days will be in my enhanced six months of maternity pay from Company A, and one of the days will be in the SMP period.

To be honest, it may be at that point that I have no interest in doing the work for them! But in theory, would it be allowed from an HMRC point of view?

The complication here is being paid by an employer who was not your employer at the qualifying week for SMP, which is the 15th week of gestation. So I think, if you do work for them before your mat leave ends then you become ineligible for SMP.

See page 3 of this link.

maternityaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/More-than-one-job.pdf

I also assume you don't have any contract with Company B.

But even though only a couple of days. You would be deemed has having returned to work so SMP stops.

You can do it OP but it would stop your SMP.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance

You can be self employed on maternity leave I believe - so you could potentially do the work as a consultant, if it's worthwhile financially to become self employed.

I would just do the work and ask them to pay you later.

Thanks all. I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle of finding out how to set up as self employed. Also I was thinking it might be tricky to do anyway when baby is only 6 months old. I think the most sensible thing to do is to give it a miss this year and hope the opportunity is still available next year!

Remember you can do up to 10 paid Keeping in Touch (KIT) days with your main employer and that can bring it a bit of money.

You only usually need to register as self employed if you're going to earn more than £1000 from self employment in the tax year
https://www.litrg.org.uk/working/self-employment/trading-allowance#2

My understanding is that if I don’t register (and invoice them) as self employed, Company B would pay me through PAYE as usual, which would trigger an end to my maternity leave/pay with Company A.

Can't you invoice them as self employed without registering as self employed with HMRC?

I would ask them to defer payment ... I presume you need to fill.in a claim form.