Maternity leave in England and Spain (2 jobs)

Chucky1234

Hi everybody,

My partner, the mother, born in the UK, moved to Spain for 15 years from the age of 8 to 24, moved back over to the UK in March 2020 and has lived here since.

We are expecting our first child in November time and are trying to plan our finances and plan what maternity pay we are entitled to. However, it is proving to be tricky as she works two jobs, one for a Spanish company, and one for an English company.

The English job is fine, we are certain she qualifies for maternity pay in the UK so there is no issue here.

The issue is her Spanish job. She has been working for this company for around 5 years, used to work in Spain however it has all moved online since the pandemic so we can now work solely online, enabling her to keep working in the UK. The company is Spanish, and she is paid in Euros in a Spanish bank account and also pays taxes in Spain on this income. She also has family ties to Spain, and still has access to a flat in Spain.

From reading all of the conditions to qualify for Spanish maternity, she qualifies for every other condition.

So the question we have is, is she likely to qualify for maternity pay from two separate countries? The only reason I could think of for why she couldn't is whether there is a rule in place (either in the UK or Spain) preventing her from receiving two maternity pay allowances, or whether the Spanish authorities wouldn't pay maternity leave for a UK national who is now living again in the UK (despite paying taxes in Spain). I have looked online extensively but this is a fairly niche scenario so I am unable to find much unfortunately.

I wondered whether you kind folk have any opinion on this? Or if you could push me in the right direction of who to contact to find out?

Speaking to her Spanish employer is proving difficult, besides they're only a small employer so they are unlikely to have encountered this themselves also. It doesn't help that I don't speak Spanish and my partner isn't the best at things like this, so makes communication between us difficult.

Also, we had considered calling the Spanish authorities, but we do not have a Spanish phone number any longer so it will cost us quite a bit to call.

If any further information is required, please let me know. I am grateful for everyones help.

MovingForwards

Probably better off asking on a Spanish ex-pat forum as it's highly doubtful anyone will know about Spanish maternity entitlement.

Can't see why she wouldn't be able to claim mat pay from both companies, provided she meets criteria. It's no different to having 2 jobs and being signed off sick from both, the employee would be paid as per sick leave policies.

Double check UK company entitlement / policies and also UK statutory mat leave entitlement / benefits, just in case. The problem with the latter may be not being in the UK long enough (just a wild guess as I've not looked it up but aware other benefits require the person to meet habitual requirements).

sheramber

Have you done a Google search for Spanish Maternity benefit'?

That brings up several hits