Query - Shared Parental Pay with Maternity Allowance (self-employed mother)

hargru

Hello, I hope someone is able to confirm if my understanding here is correct!

I've been self-employed for the past 6 years and am expecting my first child this summer. I meet the criteria to claim Maternity Allowance (£156.66 pw) for up to 39 weeks. 

My partner is employed. His work offers Enhanced Shared Parental Pay at full pay for up to 22 weeks, and then moves onto Statutory Shared Parental Pay. He has met with the HR team and confirmed this is correct. 

Our preference would be for me to take 17 weeks of mat pay/leave (at the Maternity Allowance rate). He'd use the remaining 22 weeks as shared pay/leave (which he'd get from his employer at full pay). We would both take this at the same time, meaning after the baby is born I'd return to work after roughly 4 months and he'd return after roughly 5 months.

Does anybody have any experience of claiming Shared Parental Pay when the mother is self-employed? We've not been able to find anything (yet!) that says this isn't possible, but nor have we found any similar examples. It's going to be a delicate balance trying to retain my freelance work clients over this period, so I really want to make sure our plan is watertight.

Many thanks in advance. 

mark_cycling00

I don't believe that you can both receive shared parental pay at the same time. The aim is that you take turns with the childcare over the first 9months to a year but there is nothing to stop you both being off at the same time. Check this though.

If your partner is receiving full pay for 22 weeks then that is probably going to be more than £156 per week statutory pay. You don't want to lose some of this by claiming statutory. By that I mean if you put in your forms and claim statutory from birth and your partner's company is informed by the government and they stop your partner's full pay then that probably not be good.

I don't think it's a problem to get shared parental pay if you are self-employed and meet the earning criteria. 

Can your partner split up his paid period? An option might be that you're both off for 2 months, you stay off for 2 months then he takes another 3 months on full pay. That way you can get back to clients and partner can do lots to help out.

BTW. I found the entire process extremely confusing and with very little help and advice online. I haven't go to the point where I receive my full-pay during shared parental leave. In the end I copied what a colleague had done...

hargru

mark_cycling00 said:

I don't believe that you can both receive shared parental pay at the same time. The aim is that you take turns with the childcare over the first 9months to a year but there is nothing to stop you both being off at the same time. Check this though.

If your partner is receiving full pay for 22 weeks then that is probably going to be more than £156 per week statutory pay. You don't want to lose some of this by claiming statutory. By that I mean if you put in your forms and claim statutory from birth and your partner's company is informed by the government and they stop your partner's full pay then that probably not be good.

I don't think it's a problem to get shared parental pay if you are self-employed and meet the earning criteria. 

Can your partner split up his paid period? An option might be that you're both off for 2 months, you stay off for 2 months then he takes another 3 months on full pay. That way you can get back to clients and partner can do lots to help out.

BTW. I found the entire process extremely confusing and with very little help and advice online. I haven't go to the point where I receive my full-pay during shared parental leave. In the end I copied what a colleague had done...

Thanks so much. It really is confusing and the advice online isn't explicit either way. The government page on Shared Parental Leave and Pay says "You can use SPL to take leave in blocks separated by periods of work, or take it all in one go. You can also choose to be off work together or to stagger the leave and pay." But that could be read as meaning we're entitled to take the leave together, but not the pay. 

You're absolutely right that his Shared Parental Pay is worth more than the statutory pay, so we wouldn't want to risk that. 

I believe he can split up his paid period, although his work would need to approve that. We'll continue trying to find the answers. Thanks again for your advice. 

sheramber

this might help youhttps://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/shared-parental-leave-and-pay

https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/