Working whilst on maternity leave for part-time job

[GinaFordAteMyBaby]

Ok, so I know you not supposed to work while your on maternity leave as they're paying you to stay at home and look after your child. But I'm currently working part-time, so does this mean that when I'm on maternity leave I can work on the days I'm not being paid for? I'm thinking of doing some freelance work while off so it's not such a struggle financially and was wondering whether I'll be able to do this.

bump

This says SMP must stop if you work for a different employer

Also your current employment contract may have a clause in it stopping you from working for someone else while still employed by the company, I know mine did.

You can't work whilst claiming SMP unless you were already working for another employer or freelancing BEFORE your qualifying week.

It says here that you can do self employed or voluntary work while on mat leave.

"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. "

Would freelance work count as self employed?

Thanks. I came across that last night as well, which gave me a bit of hope. I think freelancers are counted as self-employed as they pay their own taxes, don't have paid holidays or time off etc. I also don't think there's a clause in my contract which says I can't work for another employer although there is one about conflict of interest, so I would have to be careful who I worked for.

This isn't just for extra finance - I only came back off maternity leave in November and then discovered I was pregnant again. I don't like my job and feel like I can't apply for anything else at the moment but want to keep my hand it and improve my prospects over the next 18 months so I have more of a chance of moving on when I return to work. I can't believe there's not some way I can do this, especially as my maternity pay will only cover Wed-Fri.

I work 2 days for the NHS and one day for a limited company of which I'm the director. I've worked for the limited company for longer than the NHS so I'm assuming I can go back to working there without affecting my SMP??