Q: We have an employee ;who has informed us she is pregnant and we know she is eligible for SMP (Statutory Maternity Pay) BUT can we reclaim those statutory payments back?
A: As an employer, you can usually reclaim 92% of employees’ Statutory Maternity (SMP), Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Pay. This used to the be the case for SSP too until the Government decided to plow the money into the national Fit for Work service instead. (I’m sure that most employers would prefer to be reimbursed!)
You can reclaim 103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You get this if you paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 National Insurance in the last complete tax year before the ‘qualifying week’ - the 15th week (Sunday to Saturday) before the week of the due date.
To reclaim you will have to Calculate how much you’ll get back using your payroll software. To reclaim the payments, include them in an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to HMRC.
You can write to the PAYE Employer Office to ask for a repayment if you can’t set off the payments against the current year’s liabilities. You can’t do this until the start of the next tax year.
Complete and return an SP32 form to HMRC if you didn’t submit your PAYE information in real time (RTI) for a previous tax year.
Your accountants/ bookkeeper/ payroll service provider should be able to do all that for you.
In terms of employment law, there’s loads of rights that pregnant and new mothers have and more obligation so employers need to ensure what they are too to avoid any issues. If you need any advice on maternity or other family friendly rights or obligations please just to get in touch.
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