SMP qustion

deborahcarpenter

Good morning all,
I have a client who has a pregnant employee.
The employee left of her own accord after working her notice on 24th January 2014. The baby is not due until 9th May 2014 but this is exactly 15 weeks time to the day (start of qualifying period for SMP)
My question is does my client need to pay her SMP or not? Never come across this scenario before so any help much appreciated.
Deborah

Gem7321

Sorry but when you say she left do you mean she left or she began her maternity leave?

deborahcarpenter

She handed in her notice and left of her own accord. Said she couldnt cope with working and being pregnant!! The employer is a childcare nursery.

Gem7321

One of the criteria is that the employee is on the payroll, which she isn't! She should claim MA instead.

coojee

Taken from HMRC's SMP booklet:

Employee leaves job after the start of the QW or when the baby is born
Your employee cannot get maternity leave if they
have left their job but may still qualify for SMP.
It does not matter why she left or that she is not
coming back – she is entitled to SMP if she satisfies the
qualifying conditions.

Might be worth downloading the most up to date booklet to double check but it looks to me as if she might be due SMP. There's a paragraph earlier in the booklet that says:

My employee has been made redundant– do I still have to pay her SMP?
Yes. If a woman has qualified for SMP from you then you
are still liable to continue to pay SMP to her where she
leaves your employment for whatever reason including
redundancy.

You can also phone the helpline they've always been pretty good with me when I've had similar queries

Jawz

If she was still in the payroll by the 24th of Jan, which I think she was (assuming she would have paid through the payroll during that week/month), then I think in this case, she is qualified for SMP. I maybe wrong but this is my view on it.