Cover for solo director receiving SMP required?

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I'm due to go on maternity leave soon and I am a solo director/shareholder of a company which I work through as a consultant. I receive a £758 per month salary (and dividends - as per accountant's advice) and there are no other employees. 

I am researching whether I qualify for statutory maternity pay. 

Could anyone kindly help with my questions:

  • does my company have to hire someone to cover my work while I am on maternity leave, in order for the company to pay me SMP? It's not realistic for me to do this, and in reality I will keep the company going via my 10 KIT days while on maternity leave, so activity will be majorly scaled down while I am on leave.
  • Assuming I meet all criteria, how do I go about claiming the SMP from HMRC? Is this something my accountant would handle and how much should I expect to pay for this service? They already file my payroll returns.
  • Assuming I do need to find cover to claim SMP, which is not realistic, will I be able to claim maternity allowance instead?

Replies (4)

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RLI
By lionofludesch
29th Mar 2023 20:57

No, there's no need to hire someone else.

Yes, this is a relatively straightforward thing for your accountant to deal with. You can ask HMRC to send you money to fund the SMP.

Being paid a higher salary might have increased your SMP but it seems too late to do much about that now. Depends when you will start your maternity leave.

If you don't qualify for SMP, you may well be due to Maternity Allowance, which isn't all that different.

Bit of planning would help if this happens again. Just saying.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By Hugo Fair
29th Mar 2023 23:41

Ditto to all points.

Re: "I am researching whether I qualify for statutory maternity pay".
See https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/eligibility ... but this should be the first question to ask your accountant - as there are requirements such as notifying your employer in time (even though you are the employer!), and the employer then either setting you up for SMP or issuing you with the SMP1 form (which enables you instead to claim MA).

Also, "how do I go about claiming the SMP from HMRC?"
It's the company that makes the claim from HMRC (if and only if it is liable to pay you SMP), and the company then pays you SMP through the payroll (which is reported via RTI as per normal) ... you don't personally receive money direct from HMRC.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By possep
30th Mar 2023 08:48

"If you don't qualify for SMP, you may well be due to Maternity Allowance, which isn't all that different".

Amount wise, yes, but MA is not taxable.

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Replying to possep:
RLI
By lionofludesch
30th Mar 2023 09:40

True, true, how true.

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