Can i do voluntary work whilst on maternity leave

Working mums Finding work whilst pregnant. Working mums Maternity Leave. Working mums Maternity leave. Working mums Voluntary Redundancy. Working mums Maternity. Working mums Lone worker whilst pregnant. Working mums Sick leave after maternity leave Working mums Returning to work after maternity leave. As well as staying in touch with former contacts, having a baby opens up a world of new opportunities to meet potentially useful connections. It may take some time to find a group you click with, but do persevere.

Groups like Mothers Meeting have been set up specifically to help ambitious, intelligent mums connect and share ideas, dreams, resources etc. Continuing your education is a great idea for mothers who are eager to get back into the workforce after their maternity leave ends. And luckily, there are a plethora of online courses to choose from, such as a masters in Business Administration or Education, many of which are extremely affordable and can be completed at your own pace.

Many companies today actually prefer more rounded people who know how to maintain a stable work-life balance, so you may choose to use this time to find a new activity that you can pursue. Hobbies like learning a new language or musical instrument may not always translate directly into workplace benefits, but they can help you broaden your horizons and often serve to make you a more employable person overall. Some mums even decide to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit by starting a passion-based home business on maternity leave.

But anything that keeps your mind busy and your spirits high is bound to be beneficial. So make sure, above all, that you take some time away from worrying about your career and relish this opportunity to spend time with your child. The time will come to re-focus your attention more fully on work will come soon enough! Need more advice on resuming your career after maternity leave? CV Maternity leave.

Last updated on Nov 2nd, by Hannah Martin. Related Articles. Time to go back to work? Read six expert tips to help you get work ready! We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. However you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent. Manage consent. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.

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The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics". The end date must be the last date of your benefit week. For example, if your MA began on a Tuesday, the benefit week will end on the following Monday, if it began on a Wednesday, it will end on the following Tuesday. Employees may have a right to 1 or 2 weeks paternity leave and Statutory Paternity Pay so that they can take time off work to care for the baby or support the mother following birth.

Employees have the right to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with certain unexpected emergencies involving a dependant.

Parents of children under the age of 17 or a disabled child under 18 who receives Disability Living Allowance have the right to request flexible working patterns. Employers are required to give such requests serious consideration and may only turn down such requests if they follow a set procedure and are able to justify the decision. Statutory Maternity Pay SMP is a weekly payment made by employers to their employees or former employees.

Employers pay SMP to those women who have been employed by them prior to becoming pregnant and during their pregnancy. Qualifying women are entitled to SMP whether or not they intend to return to work for that employer.

There are no age limits to qualify for SMP. If you are under 16, you can qualify for SMP from your employer if you satisfy the rules. The important date for working out your SMP is the date your baby is due not when your baby is actually born. The amount of SMP you get depends on how much you earn. The qualifying conditions for SMP depend on your recent employment and earnings history. Because of this SMP does not constitute public funds.

If you think you may be entitled to SMP , please read the following pages very carefully. See terminology for meanings of abbreviations or technical phrases. Before you read on, it may help if you work out the date of the start of your qualifying week.

This is a very important date. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week in which your baby is due. The definition of a week for the qualifying week is a period of 7 days that begins at midnight between Saturday and Sunday. To work out your qualifying week, use a calendar and find the Sunday of your expected week of childbirth. Generally, the definition of a week in this guide is a period of 7 days that begins at midnight between Saturday and Sunday. You do not have to have a written contract of service.

And your employer does not actually have to have paid any NI contributions for you. To qualify for SMP , you have to satisfy 2 basic rules:. To qualify for SMP , you must satisfy the continuous employment rule. You must have been employed by your employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks into the qualifying week which is the 15th week before the week in which the baby is due.

This period must include at least 1 days employment in the qualifying week. Although continuous employment usually means employment by the same employer without a break, there are some circumstances when breaks in employment can be disregarded see below. The employment rule may be modified slightly if your baby is born prematurely. Continuous employment usually means employment by the same employer without a break, but it does not always mean this.

There are circumstances when a change of employer can be disregarded. And under some circumstances, your employment can be treated as continuous in spite of some breaks. For SMP purposes, your employment can be taken as continuous if any one of the following applies:. If you are employed by an agency, in each of the 26 weeks into the qualifying week, you will satisfy the continuous employment rule.

As long as you did some work during any week it counts as a full week. There may be complete weeks when you did no work for the agency. This does not necessarily mean that your continuity of employment is broken.

Deciding the continuous employment question: If the agency was unable to offer you work in any particular week, continuity is not broken. If the agency did offer work, but you were not available, the period of absence can count only if you were unable to work because of sickness, injury or pregnancy or parental, paternity or adoption leave.

Employment in the qualifying week: If you were not employed in the qualifying week QW , you can still be treated as employed in that week if:. If you had intended to go on working but stopped before the QW because of sickness, you can be regarded as working into the QW. You must actually resume work with the agency within 26 weeks of stopping before this can apply. If you have stopped looking for work through a particular agency before the start of the QW , you are not entitled to SMP from that agency.

But you may be entitled to claim Maternity Allowance from Jobcentre Plus. You will not normally qualify for SMP if your employment ends before the qualifying week.

This is the 15th week before the week in which your baby is due. However, if your baby is born prematurely before the QW you will be taken as satisfying the continuous employment rule if you would have been continuously employed but for early childbirth.

If your employment ends during or after the qualifying week you can still qualify for SMP from your former employer. If you change jobs during your pregnancy, you are unlikely to be able to meet the SMP continuous employment rule. But there are circumstances when your employment can be treated as continuous, even if your employer changes. For SMP purposes, your employment is treated as continuous if any of the following applies:. To qualify for SMP , you must also satisfy the earnings rule.

Your average gross weekly earnings must be at least equal to the lower earnings limit for National Insurance NI purposes. The lower earnings limit is the point at which you start to be treated as if you have paid NI contributions. You will not actually have to pay NI contributions until your earnings reach a higher point called the primary earnings threshold.

The lower earnings limit is reviewed regularly, usually in April. If it changes while you are pregnant, remember that the lower earnings limit that applies to you will be the one that was current on the Saturday at the end of your qualifying week.

Your employer must work out your average weekly earnings to find out whether or not you qualify for SMP and, if so, at what rate. As a general rule, your earnings will be averaged over a period of at least 8 weeks up to and including the last pay day before the end of the qualifying week.

But the calculation may differ from this, depending on your pay period. For SMP purposes, pay means gross pay that is due before any deductions. The gross pay you get from your employer in the relevant period will be taken into account, as long as it counts for NI contributions or would count if you earned enough or were old enough to pay NI contributions. Sick pay, overtime, bonus payments, arrears of pay and even, in most circumstances, holiday pay, must all be included if you actually get them at this time.

It is when you get the money that counts, not when it was earned. Average earnings should include all earnings and contractual benefits on which you pay NI contributions, except Class 1B contributions which arise from a PAYE tax settlement agreement which your employer makes with HM Revenue and Customs. However, if you fail to qualify for SMP because some of your earnings are accounted for under the PAYE settlement agreement, your employer should recalculate your gross pay to include the elements giving rise to Class 1B NI contributions.

If you are a student in receipt of a bursary, your bursary is not treated as earnings for SMP purposes. Salary sacrifice is a contractual arrangement where an employee voluntarily gives up the right to some of their earnings in return for some form of benefit from their employer eg childcare vouchers.

Where a salary sacrifice arrangement is in place during the period used to work out your SMP , the SMP average weekly earnings calculation will be based on your contractual earnings which count for NI contributions. Under the arrangement, the salary or wages will be paid at a reduced level and any other benefits subject to NI may also change.

This will reduce the amount of SMP paid to you or may mean that you will not be entitled to SMP as your earnings are too low. If your employer awards a pay rise that is effective at any time from the start of the period used to calculate your SMP the relevant period and the end of your maternity leave, your employer must recalculate your SMP.

Your employer must also recalculate SMP if you are awarded a pay rise with an effective date before the start of the set period but the earnings used in the SMP calculation did not reflect that pay rise. The end of the maternity leave means the end of any ordinary or additional maternity leave you take. In this example the woman is due a pay increase on 1 July each year and is entitled to SMP. Her maternity leave is 6 February to 4 February The beginning of the relevant period for calculating SMP is likely to have been around 28 October The employer in this case must re-calculate SMP to take account of the pay rise due from 1 July because the effective date of the pay rise fell in the period 28 October to 4 February Her maternity leave is 1 August to 31 July The beginning of the relevant period for calculating SMP is likely to have been around 21 April The employer must recalculate SMP to take account of the pay rise due from 1 July , and because the woman is still on maternity leave on 1 July , the employer must recalculate her SMP for the second time.

This is because the effective date of the pay rises fell in the period 21 April to 31 July If in this example the woman decides to return to work early and end her maternity leave on 5 May , then it is only the 1 July pay rise that will affect her SMP. Your employer will usually add together all your gross weekly earnings in the 8 weeks up to and including the last pay day before the end of your qualifying week.

The total will then be divided by 8 to give your average weekly earnings. Note: If a normal payment has been paid early, for example, before a holiday, the payments in the 8 week period should be divided by the number of weeks they cover. All the pay you get in the 2 months up to and including the last normal pay day before the end of the qualifying week will count. If you are paid once each calendar month, for example on the last working day of the month or on the same date each month, your employer will usually add together all the pay you received in these 2 months, divide by 2, multiply by 12 and then divide by 52 to give your average weekly earnings.

If you are paid monthly but are paid in multiples of a week for example, on the last Friday of each month , your employer will usually add together all the pay you received in these 2 months and divide the total by the number of weeks covered by the payments to give your average weekly earnings.

Your employer must add together your pay on your last normal pay day before the end of the qualifying week and any other pay received since but not including the last pay day to fall at least 8 weeks before that one. Your pay for this period is then averaged out, any odd days being counted as one-seventh of a week each. For example, if your qualifying week ends on Saturday 16 March , you were paid on Monday 11 February , Thursday 27 December and Tuesday 18 September This means that the last pay day before the end of the qualifying week is 11 February The last payday to fall at least 8 weeks before 11 February is 18 September Therefore the period used to average your payments is from 19 September to 11 February inclusive the relevant period.

The payments made to you on 27 December and 13 February are averaged over that period by counting the number of days in the relevant period. There are days in this period, so to get a weekly average the sum of these earnings is divided by and multiplied by 7. If you are in any doubt, get your employer to show you how your average weekly earnings have been worked out.

If your baby is born prematurely before the end of the qualifying week, the relevant period for working out your average earnings will usually be the 8 weeks ending with the Saturday before the week in which your baby is born. If you are dissatisfied with the way your SMP has been calculated talk to your employer to see if you can resolve the matter. If you are still unsure contact the HM Revenue and Customs employee helpline on for help in working out what SMP you should get. If you satisfy both the continuous employment rule and the earnings rule , your employer must pay you SMP even if your contract ends at any time after the start of the 15th week before the week your baby is due.

If you are taken into legal custody at any time in your maternity pay period MPP , your employer no longer has to pay you SMP. Your SMP will stop from the week in which you go into legal custody. Your employer will give you a form SMP1 to explain why.

Your entitlement to SMP is not affected if you voluntarily help the police with their enquiries. When you are discharged from custody, you still will not be able to get SMP. But you may be able to get Maternity Allowance from Jobcentre Plus. Your employer can pay SMP to you anywhere in the world. Read guidance on how entitlement to maternity benefits may be affected if you move to an EEA country or Switzerland from 1 January The following are all reasons why you might not be able to get SMP :.

If you are pregnant and you think you are eligible for SMP from your employer, you must tell your employer that you intend to stop work to have the baby and the day you want your SMP to start.

You must also provide your employer with evidence of when your baby is due. Most women will be able to take maternity leave from their work. To claim maternity leave you must tell your employer no later than the end of the qualifying week which is the 15th week before the week in which the baby is due that you are pregnant and:.

You must give your employer at least 28 days notice of the date you want your SMP to start. Your employer may need your notice in writing. You can change your mind about the date but you must give 28 days notice of the new date. If you can get both maternity leave and SMP it is best to tell your employer the date you want your SMP to start at the same time as you tell your employer about your leave. If it is not possible to give 28 days notice for payment of SMP , you must tell your employer as soon as you can.

If your employer considers it was reasonably practicable for you to have given notice earlier than you did, they can refuse to pay you SMP. If your baby is born prematurely , before you had given notice to your employer, you may still be able to get SMP. Also see pregnancy and maternity rights in the workplace. You must give your employer medical evidence of the date your baby is due. This will normally be on a maternity certificate MATB1 that you can get from your doctor or midwife. You cannot get this certificate until you reach the 20th week before the week in which your baby is due generally the 21st week of pregnancy.

Your doctor or midwife will usually give you the MATB1 at your next antenatal appointment after then. Your employer may be willing to accept other medical evidence, but this must be broadly the same as a maternity certificate. You should give your employer the medical evidence no later than 3 weeks after the date SMP was due to start. Your employer may agree to accept your medical evidence later than this if they are satisfied that you had a good reason for the delay.

But if you have not given the evidence within 13 weeks of the start of the MPP , for whatever reason, SMP is not payable. Also see when SMP is paid. Even if your baby is born prematurely, before the maternity certificate could be issued, your employer will still need evidence of the date the baby was actually due.

Please read the section about premature births. If you have more than one employer, you may be entitled to SMP from each one so you could get more than one lot of SMP. The same is true if you have more than one contract with the same employer, if your NI contributions are paid separately for each contract. Remember that your doctor or midwife can issue you with one maternity certificate form MATB1 only.

So if you do qualify for SMP from more than one employer, your other employer will have to tell you what other medical evidence is acceptable see proving your baby is due.

Unless your baby is born earlier you cannot get any SMP until 11 weeks before the week your baby is due. But if you remain employed there is flexibility as to exactly when the payments start, and you can chose the date. There are some circumstances when SMP must start. See changes that will affect the start of your SMP. Your Maternity Pay Period is determined by the date your baby is due, not by the date your baby is actually born. SMP can be paid for up to 39 weeks. You can get SMP from 11 weeks before the week in which your baby is due, but only if you stop work before then.

If you continue to be employed by your employer on or after the 11th week before the week your baby is due you can chose the day you want your SMP to start. It will start then provided you have stopped work in accordance with the notice you gave to your employer.

Your MPP and leave will start sooner in the special circumstances described below. Also see how to get SMP. Example: a woman works part of the day on Tuesday 11 June but goes home early because of an illness due to her pregnancy. She does not come into work on Wednesday 12 June for the same reason.

If you do not think that your absence is wholly or partly because of your pregnancy, ask your employer to reconsider their decision. If you are still unsure, contact the HM Revenue and Customs employee helpline on for help in working out what SMP you should get. To get SMP , you must be employed — but not necessarily have been paid or worked — during the qualifying week.

If your baby is born before the qualifying week see premature births. If your baby is born later than the week in which it was due, and after your MPP had started, your SMP is not affected.

Your MPP remains the same. Industrial or trade disputes have no effect on the start of the maternity pay period. If you are involved in such a dispute, you can still give your employer notice of the date your maternity leave will start. This date can be within the period of the dispute. And the notice that you have already given to your employer is not affected by a subsequent trade dispute.

If you have more than one employer , you may be entitled to more than 1 lot of SMP. Although you may want to stop work in each job at the same time, you can still go on working longer with one of them if you feel you can do so.

Your MPPs with each employer would then start at different times. You may also be entitled to more than 1 lot of SMP if you have separate contracts with the same employer. You can start your SMP at different times in relation to each contract. If you leave your employment after the start of the qualifying week you can still get SMP , but:. If you leave your employment after your MPP has started, you will still continue to get SMP from your former employer.

If you work for a health authority at more than 1 hospital or unit and 1 or more of those hospitals or units become an NHS trust then you will have 2 or more contracts of employment. This may mean that you will get more than 1 lot of SMP. It may also mean that because your earnings have been split between contracts, your average earnings under 1 or more of those contracts are below the lower earnings limit you will not qualify for SMP.

See more than one employer and lower earnings limit LEL for more information. There are special rules for this situation. If you were employed by a health authority when your contract was split between a health authority and a trust or between trusts, you can elect to have your contracts treated as 1 for SMP purposes if it would be helpful to you.

She can therefore elect to have her contracts treated as 1 to enable her to qualify for SMP. If you want to elect to have your contracts treated as 1, you should tell each of your employers about your election at least 28 days before the date you intend to stop work to have the baby. Within 28 days of telling your employers about your election you should give each of your employers the following information:.

See working out your average weekly earnings. If you satisfy all the conditions you will be entitled to SMP for a maximum period of 39 weeks. The amount you get depends on your earnings. SMP is treated as earnings, so your employer will make any deductions such as income tax and NI contributions that are due.

Your employer can also make other deductions from your SMP , for example pension contributions or trade union subscriptions. It is intended that SMP should be paid in the same way and at the same time as your normal wages would be paid. SMP is a weekly rate but your employer does not have to pay you weekly. If your wage is normally paid monthly, your employer can pay you SMP monthly with an adjusting payment for any odd days.

Or your employer may split your weekly payments of SMP over different pay periods, if this fits better with the way your employer normally pays you. Your SMP can be paid to you through an insurance company, friendly society, payroll service or other third party if you wish, but your employer must make sure that all the necessary income tax and NI deductions are made.

Your employer cannot pay you SMP in kind, or as board and lodging, or by way of a service. Your employer can pay SMP as a lump sum, as long as the rules for paying NI contributions are obeyed.