Can I stay on maternity leave and work one day a week?

During SMP maternity pay, you are entitled to return to work for a maximum of 10 days work, which are called keeping in touch/ KIT days. These days won’t end your maternity leave or mean you lose your SMP for any weeks that you do some work.

If you work more than 10 days for your employer in your SMP pay period:

• your employer can’t pay SMP to you for any weeks where you work
• your maternity leave will come to an end

Once you have used your 10 KIT days, you will lose one week’s SMP for each week or part week that you work ( over the ten days).

You can request that you return to work earlier than your agreed day, and this will ensure you are not in any breach or you will need to return to work on your agreed date and not work any days before this date. You wouldn’t be able to work one day a week for your employer even if the SMP isn’t being paid.

However, you could negotiate a gradual return to work where you went back on reduced hours and built up to full-time hours. However, this could have an impact on your pay. One way around this, if you plan to return to work full time, is to use  a mix of holidays to make up the rest.