Any business owners clued up on maternity pay?

[charleneweeooo]

Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone here is a business owner who has had to pay statutory maternity pay for an employee before?

Basically I qualify for SMP and am due to start maternity leave today. However my boss has stuck his head in the sand and basically told me he doesn't know how it works because he is convinced we're going into lockdown and has basically said 'our business is going to fold so it won't be my problem to pay you'. He seems convinced he has to send away my matb1 form but I didn't think he had to send it anywhere, is this correct? He told me on the phone last night I should 'send the form away myself' and when I asked who to, he said he didn't know.

Surely he still needs to get the ball rolling though? Since the business is currently still up and running as normal? I know HMRC is meant to pick up smp payments if a company goes bust while paying me, but... if he hasn't even started paying me yet, does that mean HMRC will have no proof or whatever? Becuase he hasn't registered it or something like that? I'm terrified I'm going to get absolutely nothing

 

[BannerPenguin]

@salonfrog question for you perhaps?

 

[Lillypie]

For smaller businesses he would go online and fill out a form including your due date from Matb1 form ( don’t think they need the actual matb1 sent just the dates from it ) then he can request advanced funding which he should then pay to you via payroll.
In my experience the money usually gets transferred reasonably quickly directly into the bank account of the business.
He would need to put in the claim across 2 tax years if you are starting maternity in March as that falls under 2019-2020 then he can claim ongoing from 2020-2021 to cover from April onwards .