Working when on maternity leave

[MrsMichaelSchofield]

I am currently on maternity leave (teacher) and am doing some exam paper marking. My friend said today that I might not be allowed to do this when receiving stat maternity pay. Also do I need to tell the tax credits people? Really need the extra income but don't want to get into trouble

You can't be employed by one employer while receiving SMP from another, no, unless you were already employed by both employers in your qualifying week, 15 weeks before your due date.

You can work on a self-employed basis, register as self-employed with HMRC and pay your own tax and NI.

You can work for up to 10 days for your existing employer without jeopardising your SMP.

But if you start work for someone new while receiving SMP you must tell your employer so that your SMP can be stopped.

No idea about income declaration and tax credits I'm afraid.

flowery's said it/done it
when did you start your mat leave and when do you go back to work? And who is employing you to do the marking - is it the exam board or an agency?

Here you go all about what changes you need to inform HMRC about with regard to tax credits. Income going up is one of them.

I stopped work in March and go back in Dec. The marking is with an exam board

See flowerys links - are good - also check with the tax credits helpline if you need to speak to a rl person to clarify? When on mat leave they put your income as "nil" for tax credit purposes, and any income from company schemes is worked out when it gets to the end of the financial year iyswim.

I wondered really when asking about dates, that if you were due back to work in sept or some time soon, then maybe the exam board would hold your payment til you are back at work. But alas you are way out... sorry it looks like you are down to sticking to the rules. You can't receive smp for any week that you work : whether it can resume at the rate that you previously received would need to be looked into. As you didn't work for the authority who employ you, it's as flowery said in her first post...again I was wondering if there was a teaching agency involved (again who could have employed you previously, and you may have stayed on their books) but the exam boards don't tend to do it that way these days. I waffle. Just take fb's word for it, she's the hr guru round these parts

From what you've said the only way you can do this without losing your SMP is if you can do it as self-employed. I don't know anything about exam marking or whether that would be a legitimate possibility, but being employed by someone new means you lose your SMP so won't be worth it I imagine.