A sole director has discovered that she is pregnant and is planning her maternity absence. The company's trade is cleaning and currently has two employees besides the director. Obviously, the director will be giving up on the cleaning work for a period but does she also need to refrain from the admin too ? Much can be delegated but some, such as signing off confirmation statements and accounts, cannot.
Does the company need to appoint another director to cover the maternity leave ?
Replies (18)
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What does it matter what counts as work?
Oh - I get it! It is not the maternity leave, but the Statutory Maternity Pay which concerns you. Why didn't you say?
If she continues to do the admin for the cleaning business - talking to customers, raising invoices, etc. - she is working for the business, As sonn as she stars doing the admin, her maternity leave and SMP end.
I would not however be concerned about her just signing the accounts.
Some of my female sole directors have reported that they get very tired running a business whilst pregnant, especially those on a low salary topped up by dividends, and they get especially tired during the SMP qualifying period. They often require a little bit of extra motivation, such as a bonus paid through PAYE, to keep them going at these difficult times.
No, but it's on my list of things to try if I ever get tired of working full time - along with becoming a teacher.
Never, but I did have my Twitter account hacked once so I figured that was the more likely explanation for you.
Must have been traumatic.
In the meantime, Lion may enquire (if not already done so) as to whether his client is in need of a similar short-term motivation, depending of course on the specifics of her case. £2k per month is a good figure
and the cost of c£900 NI (assuming some spare e'ers allowance left) and a modest accountancy fee is easily offset by c£2,500 of SMP funding (last time I got the payroll elves to check my numbers anyway).
You should consider the two roles seperately although in reality they are rarely considered this way.
The first is to do work as you have covered and the second is as an officer of the company. My understanding that is that the later is not employment but services and therefore not covered by SMP.
Same answer but a bit more info if you need to explain it.
You should consider the two roles seperately although in reality they are rarely considered this way.
The first is to do work as you have covered and the second is as an officer of the company. My understanding that is that the later is not employment but services and therefore not covered by SMP.
Same answer but a bit more info if you need to explain it.