Redundancy and SMP from HMRC?

Magik01

Hi, looking for a bit of advice really.

Basically I have worked for my company since 20th November 2017, and got made redundant due to insolvency of the business on 17th July. My baby is due 24th October meaning I was employed during my qualifying week (8th-14th July).

I have rang the MAternity disputes team and they have said that I am entitled to SMP as I meet all the criteria and because my company is insolvent and cannot pay it me, HMRC will, brilliant. However SMP due to redundancy usually starts the day after you are made redundant. Because legally you cannot start maternity leave/pay until 11 weeks before you baby is due (5th August for me) so mine will automatically start then, and I don’t have a choice in that. Unfortunately I did want to start SMP a lot later than that so I had more time with baby once here!

I have also asked the question whether I can get another job until baby arrives as I don’t want 3 months of doing nothing! I’m always used to having a full time job and need something. I have been offered a part time job, the MAternity disputes team say I can work and receive a wage up until my baby is born and it won’t affect SMP, so I would be receiving both a wage and SMP, as long as I don’t receive a wage after the due date it won’t affect the SMP pis to me by HMRC.

Hs anyone ever recieved SMP off HMRC? How is it paid and is it weekly/monthly? Also do you think the part time job will be treated as a second job with me having another income and therefore taxed as such? Sorry for the long post but I really can’t find anything online about this, I think I must be an anomaly wanting to work until baby arrives!!

anniecave

It is subject to both tax and national insurance. See https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay - although not all of this page is relevant to you as it's assuming you would be paid via your employer.


If you get another job then I would suggest phoning HMRC once your SMP is due to start or when you take the second job (whichever is the later of the two) and they will allocate appropriate tax codes to both your SMP and the other job.


HMRC would also be the best place to ask for how often the SMP would be paid, especially as this is an unusual scenario. Most benefits and other payments from DWP are normally calculated on a weekly basis, and paid in blocks of weeks, so I would guess it might be either 4 weekly or 2 weekly.


I hope it all goes well for you with the new baby...