Maternity pay and 'keep in touch' days

[Bellenden Belle]

I have two jobs. A PAYE job that is paying me statutory maternity pay and a freelance one day a week position which isn't. Am I allowed to use my keep in touch days to work in my freelance role - a company that will

Struggle a lot more without me (and who happen to pay a much higher daily rate as it's freelance)

Any thoughts on anything I should be aware of?

[Mrs TP]

Surely they are part of the package of your salaried position. Interesting situation you are in though probably wanting to go back to freelance position before the salaried position - legal minefield. Good luck!

[DaveR]

I'm definitely not an expert, but I think the keeping in touch days are a bit of a red herring - they have to be agreed between you and the employer, and their legal purpose is to avoid triggering the end of your maternity leave by going into work for a few days.

The real question appears to be whether you can carry on self-employment whilst receiving SMP - the answer appears to be 'yes' - see 3.12 on the linked doc

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

[mimosa]

I did a lot of research on this during my first pregnancy. I work 3 days a week as a permanent employee and 2 days a week as a freelancer. In the end I deducted that I could continue to work the 2 days a week as a freelancer as I was getting no maternity pay for those days. As DaveR says, keeping in touch days relate only to the days you work for a salary which brings in maternity pay. I spoke to someone in the tax office to confirm I'd understood correctly, because I didn't want to make a mistake, and they had no idea but verbally agreed I'd got it right. I couldn't get them to confirm this in writing though.

[Jellybeanz]

I'd use half for each job :) 10 max I think and that's quite a lot if you think about it esp whilst baby is little...

[mooncake]

Try calling HMRC helpline on eligibility. As far as I know though, you are free to work as a freelancer without ending mat leave with the qualifying co!

[Bellenden Belle]

Brilliant guys - I didn't realise the 10 day max rule referred to Keep

In touch days rather than general working. That solves the problem perfectly!