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Statutory maternity pay FAQ
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Reclaiming SMP
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How are the SMP payments reclaimed when there are no other employees? |
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An application for SMP funding can be made to HMRC. The amount received will be the difference between the amount of tax and NI liability over the SMP period and the amount of SMP paid and compensation claimed. The process can take a couple of weeks but is quite painless. |
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Working whilst receiving SMP
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Can an employee receive SMP from one employer whilst doing work for another employer? |
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The entitlement to receive SMP is employee based so, if the employee starts working, other than a KIT day for the SMP paying employer, their entitlement to receive SMP ceases. It is the duty of the employee to inform the SMP paying employer that they are working and that they are no longer entitled to receive SMP. |
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Claiming SMP after leaving
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Can an employee claim SMP from an ex-employer? |
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To receive SMP the person must be employed, if the employee terminated their employment prior to maternity leave starting no SMP can be paid; it is a condition of payment that maternity leave has started. If the employee was legally and fairly terminated by the employer prior to the employee advising the employer that she was pregnant the employee would not qualify for maternity leave or pay. If the employer legally and fairly terminated the employee after being advised of the employee's pregnancy and intention to take maternity leave then, providing the employee qualified and continued to qualify, generally the employer will have to make SMP payments; as this is a general rule professional advice should be sought prior to making any decision. |
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Starting maternity leave early
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If an employee has to start her maternity leave earlier than planned can the holidays she intended to take prior to the leave just be paid or rolled over to the following holiday year? |
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Maternity leave has to be started early if the baby is born or the mother is absent within four weeks of the expected date of birth. If, prior to the maternity leave starting, it was intended to take a period of paid holiday but, due to having to start the maternity leave early the holidays could not be taken then, by law, they can't just be 'paid up'. The law states that holidays must be taken, currently (2010) it is possible to pay up the extra days in lieu of bank holidays but this will change in the future. The only option is to roll over the unused holidays to the following holiday year and, maybe, tag them onto the end of the maternity leave. |
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SMP payments with multiple employers
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How much SMP is an employee entitled to when they work for multiple employers? |
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An employee is entitled to full SMP from each employer that she qualifies to receive it from. If an employee works for three employers and has the required length of service with each and earns the NI lower earnings threshold or more from each employer then she is entitled to receive the full SMP entitlement from each including the full amount of the lower SMP rate. The end result is that for two employees earning the same salary, one with one employer and the other with, for example, three employers, both employees receive the same 90% SMP payment but the employee with three jobs receives three times the amount of the the lower rate than the employee with one job. A true example of how the powers that be are promoting equality within the workplace (not!). |
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