If you’re a sole trader you don’t qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay - that’s only payable to employees. However, there are two bits of good news:
- You’re very likely to get Maternity Allowance instead. That’s the State Benefit for those who don’t qualify for SMP. Most freelancers will get it at a similar rate to SMP.
- Unlike SMP, Maternity Allowance isn’t taxable! So someone getting that standard rate of Maternity Allowance will probably be better off than someone getting the same amount of SMP.
The downside is that, unlike an employee, you don’t get 90% of your usual income for the first six weeks - you just get the standard rate throughout. You’re likely to be a little worse off in that respect - but the tax saving will compensate anyway.
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