We pay freelance (self employed) tutors to deliver dance workshops during term times. One of our tutors is pregnant and is trying to claim maternity allowance. She was told by the Job Centre that even though she is freelance she may be entitled to SMP by us as she has worked with us for over 3 years. I am happy to pay her SMP but can not work out from all the various websites if she is eligible. She works for 3, ten week terms a year, with long gaps particularly over the summer and we pay her approx 240 per week. I dont know if this counts as continuous service. The baby is due in October and our end of term is June 28th. She isn't currently planning on returning in September but would for a few weeks if that would make her eligible. If she isnt eligible for SMP, she needs to prove that she worked for us for 26 weeks to get Maternity allowance. Sorry to ask another question about maternity pay but there seems to be very little information about self employed status.

We are a small community centre employing only 7 staff, 2 of which are pregnant and due to go on materity leave. Are we entitled to claim paid maternity leave back?

My daughter who is 22 and her husband who is 25 are expecting their first baby at the end of March. He is in a low income job ... is there still a maternity grant payable, if so how much and who do they need to contact. Kind regards.

I am on a fixed term contract due to expire on 31st March unless further funding is found, so face the possibility of being made redundant. I have been on rolling fixed term contracts since March 2003 so I think I am entitled to a redundancy payment.

However my question is particularly to do with pregnancy and maternity pay. I am due to have a baby on 21st June. If I am still employed I intend to start maternity leave at the end of May. My employer also offers more beneficial payment terms than the statutory maternity pay allowance.

If my contract ends in March would I still be able to claim the maternity pay from my employer (as I think I would have been "employed by the same employer without a break for at least 26 weeks into the 15th week before the week your baby is due" - details from directgov website), or would I have to settle for claiming Maternity Allowance instead as I would be currently unemployed?

I think my employer would think that as my contract and funding has ended they would not have to pay me, but I thought I read somewhere that they can claim the money back from the inland revenue (it is a small staff on the payroll). I hope this makes sense and you are able to give me some guidance.

Continuing on from an earlier Q&A

... how do we know how long to continue to pay SMP, i.e what if the employee finds employment elsewhere before the end of her maternity leave entitlement (she commenced maternity leave on 7 Jan)? She will no longer be an employee with effect from 31 March so will not have communication with her.

... Do we have to communicate anything to the Inland Revenue, we don't want to be claiming back SMBC that we have paid to the employee when the employee may no longer entitled to it.

... The other complication is that the employee had another job whilst working for us and we're not party to her conditions of employment. I have copied the following advice from one of the websites based on us being employer A:

"If you work for another employer (employer B) before the birth you can still get SMP from us (employer A). If you work after the birth for employer B and you were not working for employer B in the 15th week before your baby was due, your SMP from us will stop on the Saturday before you start work for employer B. However, if you worked for employer B in the 15th week before your baby was due, you may work for employer B without affecting your SMP from employer A."

I believe she was working for Employer B in the 15th week before the baby was due and I believe she may go back to Employer B before her materity entitlement expires. Do I need to ask her for evidence of whether she worked for Employer B in the 15th week in order to determine whether we continue to pay her if she goes back to them? And how would I even know if she goes back to work for them?

Sorry this is so complicated and many thanks.

We have an employee on maternity leave which commenced on 7 Jan.

We are a small organisation and have always been flexible and generous with her requirements so didn't get a formal notification of the fact she wanted to come back early. She always insisted that she would come back after 2 weeks but then ... said she wanted 4 weeks and (is now) not sure when she comes back and her doctor wants to see her in 2 weeks.

I've now asked for a formal written date from her for when she comes back based on the 8 weeks notification that we can expect. However, her contract expires on 31 March so even giving 8 weeks notice now takes her past that date. She says she'd like to say that she'll come back at beginning of March but can't say for definite and has asked that if she gives me a written date for coming back and then can't do so because her doctor says she's still ill would her start date be invoked and then she would be off sick. I don't know how to proceed in terms of getting a formal date but there is only a few weeks of the contract left.

We need to employ a temporary worker to cover her work and at the moment don't know how long to make that contract. We'd like her to come back if she can but don't want to be seen to be making it difficult for her to come back. Also, because she hasn't been here we haven't been able to formally tell her (we wanted to tell her face to face in the first instance) that her contract will not be renewed (because funding has ceased for that particular project. We don't want the fact that her contract isn't to be renewed to be confused with requesting a date for her return. Can you help? Many thanks

We have a pregnant employee who is insisting that she will only take the minimum of 2 weeks maternity leave and then come back to work. However, (recently) her father died and she's not only suffered the emotional effects of this but she's been into hospital a couple of times with some pregnancy complications. My concern is that she'll come back to work after two weeks but may not actually be fit enough both emotionally and physically.

Is it appropriate for me to ask her for some kind of note from her doctor that says she's fit enough to come back to work?

Apart from my concerns about her health, I do have to be honest and say from a small charity's perspective, we couldn't afford for her to come back after two weeks and then be off sick (she is employed on a fixed term contract until 31 March 08 that we won't be renewing (but completely because of funding reasons not pregnancy or maternity reasons). Is there anything we can do to mitigate against this?

Many thanks - Caron

We are a small charity that is flexible and supportive of its employees. We have a lady who's baby is due mid January but there is a possibility she will be induced before that and she should find out from her consultant on 17 Dec if this is the case ..... (lots more detail from this question has been moved to the answer section)

.... also, her husband works with us and will want to take paternity leave at some point in January (after she comes back to work). I know the government allowance is approximately £112 per week - how do we pay this and do we have to notify the authorities? Can we just not pay his usual salary for 2 weeks and only pay him the statutory minimum?

One of our employees has gone on maternity leave two weeks early as she has given birth already. She is on a fixed term contract which ends on 31 March 08 whilst she is on leave. The intention is to continue with a new contract and she has indicated that when she returns to work she would like to drop down to three days a week and we have agreed this.

My related questions are:

1. Do we extend her current full time contract until her return and then issue a new contract for 3 days a week at that point?

2. I understand that she continues to accrue leave and can carry forward unused leave from the current year - presumably this would be calculated on the current full time basis?

3. Our leave entitlement is currently 20 days plus bank holidays - does she carry forward the bank holidays as well as leave entitlement to after her return?

THIS QUESTION IS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF AN ANONYMOUS ASKER

I am working with a charity who are going through a transitional period. There is a development plan … such that all existing posts in the office would disappear. All the existing staff knew this.

... one member of staff went on maternity leave, we made one redundant and the other one left of her own accord.

We have demonstrated that individuals previously in post have limited and poorly suited skills to the needs of the charity. We also know that posts were over-remunerated when judged against skill and responsibility. In working towards the development there will be new posts created. The person on maternity leave knows that change is happening and that it is likely she will need to move into a new job when she returns.

Trustees have been drafting job descriptions for the new posts and to some degree believe that there isn’t a match between the existing post and either of the new ones. This is further complicated by the fact that staff have not been managed properly in the past; thus the job spec for the existing post doesn’t match the title held by the person in the existing post, but then the title she holds has never been approved or a new job description approved by Trustees.

New posts are unlikely to be remunerated at the same level. Trustees believe that the existing post is overpaid. The existing post is based on 4 days per week and new posts are full time.

The order of recruitment of the new posts may mean that the existing postholder may have to wait before the charity can afford the new posts. In the meantime the charity probably can’t withstand the salary bill from the existing post which is no longer needed.

... Trustees are concerned that staff don’t suffer because of bad management in the past, but are equally aware that they must do the right thing for the charity. Whilst clearly change was being planned and it just happens that the existing postholder has gone on maternity leave, they are concerned that this may restrict what they can do.

It is essentially a mess that needs sorting but the question is where to start! The charity doesn’t have funds to spend on bringing in an HR specialist.