Maternity Leave Question

vixpots

Hi there,

I'm a secondary school teacher, going off on maternity leave in November.
I currently also teach Irish Dancing at the school I work at (Free of charge at the minute, during lunchtimes).
I'd like to continue to teach Irish dance during maternity leave to boost my income. I'm thinking a couple of classes a week, earning roughly £400 per month initially.
Would this affect my SMP? And would it be worth doing with tax?
There aren't any other Irish dance classes in my area, so it has the potential to become quite successful - Is there a limit to what I can earn in order for it to be worth my while? (I.e, not affecting SMP, paying too much tax)

All help/advice greatly appreciated!

Kayalana99

Pretty sure you can't sorry. If you start working for yourself or another employer you would lose SMP.

http://businessplusbaby.com/2010/12/13/self-employment-during-your-maternity-pay-period/

Wizzbang

vixpots wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm a secondary school teacher, going off on maternity leave in November.
I currently also teach Irish Dancing at the school I work at (Free of charge at the minute, during lunchtimes).
I'd like to continue to teach Irish dance during maternity leave to boost my income. I'm thinking a couple of classes a week, earning roughly £400 per month initially.
Would this affect my SMP? And would it be worth doing with tax?
There aren't any other Irish dance classes in my area, so it has the potential to become quite successful - Is there a limit to what I can earn in order for it to be worth my while? (I.e, not affecting SMP, paying too much tax)

All help/advice greatly appreciated!

Honestly, I'm not quite sure why you would think that you would want to do that whilst pregnant or nursing?! Is this your first baby? Besides that, what would your employer think, if you're meant to be off?

chrisbur

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Pretty sure you can't sorry. If you start working for yourself or another employer you would lose SMP.

http://businessplusbaby.com/2010/12/13/self-employment-during-your-maternity-pay-period/

From the above web site....
"The good news for brand new mums wanting to set up in business is that you can earn money from self-employment while in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) from an employer. The DWP website states “If you do any work in a self-employed capacity during your maternity pay period, then such work will not affect your SMP”. Just check that your contract of employment does not prohibit self-employment as you’re still classed as ‘employed’ when on maternity leave."

Self employment does not affect SMP.

As advised you need to check if it will cause any problems regarding your employer or if your employer pays over the SMP rate if that would be affected.

Regarding tax this would depend on your total earnings for the year, assuming that total did not put you into the 40% bracket and your current job used up all your yearly tax allowance then 20% tax due.

vixpots

No, not my first baby. And there are lots of reasons.
- I love teaching it (I'm a retired Irish dancer myself and have always danced)
- It's a good way to get back into shape
- I created the dance troupe over 8 years ago... if I don't teach them they will all have to stop dancing for the time I'm off, and I don't want all my hard work going to waste.
- It's 2 evenings a week for a total of 3 hours per week - I think that's good for any mum's sanity, don't you?