Do i HAVE to claim maternity pay?

[pitsy79]

Hi there

I am working as a ltd company contractor, doing the usual - small salary and dividends as director of my company.

I've searched through quite a lot of posts about maternity leave, but can't find the specific answer i'm looking for. I'm currently pregnant, and when the wee one comes along will be planning on taking a year off. My question is, do I actually have to do anything with maternity pay? Can I not just continue paying myself my small salary, and taking the dividends I need - as I would if I was on the bench for an extended period of time?

Are there some benefits I would be missing out on by not going down the maternity route for example? As far as I can tell, I'd be better off NOT claiming?

thanks in advance for any advice!

[JoJoGabor]

I have just claimed paternity. Why wouldn't you claim? The government pays the maternity pay, so your company has more obey to distribute as dividends. Better government pays your salary than you, even if it is reduced

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

No, I'm not aware of any obligation to claim.

@pitsy - if you crunch the numbers, maternity pay isn't worth a great deal to a low salary / high div individual, as to maximise maternity pay you need to increase salary and reduce dividend, and the increased NI outweighs a lot of the benefits. However I stress crunch the numbers, this post in my firms web site is a example of the dilemma:

Statutory Maternity Pay and small company directors | Whitefield Tax Limited

But, I stress, do the maths individually.

[pitsy79]

thanks for the link Jessica, that's really helpful - I guess i'll confirm my thinking with my accountant!

[psychocandy]

I have just claimed paternity. Why wouldn't you claim? The government pays the maternity pay, so your company has more obey to distribute as dividends. Better government pays your salary than you, even if it is reduced

OK. so if I take a week off from my client, I can get the government to stump up paternity pay? I know its not a lot though is it?

[Nixon Williams]

OK. so if I take a week off from my client, I can get the government to stump up paternity pay? I know its not a lot though is it?

SMP and SPP (Statutory Paternity Pay) is currently at the rate of £135.45 per week, this will increase to £136.78 from April 2013.

SPP can be paid for one or two weeks and can only be taken in one block, so you can either have one or two weeks in total, you cannot have one week now and another week, say a month later.

[psychocandy]

SMP and SPP (Statutory Paternity Pay) is currently at the rate of £135.45 per week, this will increase to £136.78 from April 2013.

SPP can be paid for one or two weeks and can only be taken in one block, so you can either have one or two weeks in total, you cannot have one week now and another week, say a month later.

And this can be claimed easily enough? Not much I guess but better than a poke in the eye....

Wonder if the naughty people amongst us would consider claiming this for the two weeks but then still rocking up and billing client? ;-)

[Nixon Williams]

And this can be claimed easily enough? Not much I guess but better than a poke in the eye....

Yes, your accountant can sort this out quite easily, there is just a small form to complete.

Wonder if the naughty people amongst us would consider claiming this for the two weeks but then still rocking up and billing client? ;-)

This would be fraud, but I am sure it happens!

[quackhandle]

I did this as my little girl was born the day after I got benched!

I had four weeks on bench, but 2 weeks of that was Paternity. The SPP wasn't any great shakes but better than a kick in the balls. I did wonder what the situation would if I had managed to get a gig during that first two weeks.

qh

[northernladuk]

I did this as my little girl was born the day after I got benched!

I had four weeks on bench, but 2 weeks of that was Paternity. The SPP wasn't any great shakes but better than a kick in the balls. I did wonder what the situation would if I had managed to get a gig during that first two weeks.

qh

What if you like being kicked in the balls? Some folks do apparently.