Sole director/shareholder, SMP and KIT days

Sole director/shareholder, SMP and KIT days

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I'm trying to find out what a sole director/shareholder of a company with employees can do without it counting as a KIT day.
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Obviously, she would like to claim as much SMP from the government as possible, but will also need to work more than 10 days in the MPP to keep the business running, even though the employees can handle most of it, and she will be taking maternity leave and mostly staying at home.
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Employees can only work the 10 keeping in touch days as an employee before she loses SMP. Obviously, coming into the office and sitting at her desk working will be a KIT day.
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A shareholder would not be expected to have anything to do with the running of the company (work, for want of a better word). but a standard Ltd Co remuneration package gives the director the bulk of their money as dividends in their capacity as shareholder. I'm splitting hairs here, but could it be argued that therefore some work is done as capacity as shareholder as investment of time in the company? Not 'work' as an employee?
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I am not sure how much the DWP is bothered by this.
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Slightly less hair-splitting, what about monitoring and replying to emails from home? Many employees do this outside of their normal working hours and don't expect to get paid for doing it, so I assume this is fine and won't count as a KIT day. This is what the director mostly intends to do, and really is the crux of the question.
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I've had a look on the ole google, but it's hard to find definitive information about this kind of circumstance - mostly it just says "work."

Replies (3)

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Image is of a pin up style woman in a red dress with some of her skirt caught in the filing cabinet. She looks surprised.
By Monsoon
27th Feb 2013 11:22

ugh, line breaks

they aren't working. sorry.

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
27th Feb 2013 12:11

I think you know the answer

"Obviously, she would like to claim as much SMP from the government as possible, but will also need to work more than 10 days in the MPP to keep the business running"

So, she will have come back to work and can no longer claim SMP.

Your "working as a shareholder, not as an employee" argument is untenable.  The better line is "replying to emails from home", assuming that the business is run from a separate office and she does not come into the office.

How honest do you or your client want to be?

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Image is of a pin up style woman in a red dress with some of her skirt caught in the filing cabinet. She looks surprised.
By Monsoon
27th Feb 2013 12:23

Thanks Euan

Yep the shareholder thing was just one of my random lateral thinking attempts.

It's more the mornitoring email from home issue that's the biggie. Yes, office is separate and no, not going in.

The reason we're asking is because she wants to be honest. If she didn't, she'd just lie about days worked :-)

What I'm trying to find out is what exactly counts as a KIT day and what doesn't. It's hard enough running a business, and hard enough being a new mum. Having to do both - well, it's nice to get as much support from the government as possible :)

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