Keep In Touch days

A question about : Keep In Touch days

My partner is currently on maternity leave. She is being paid maternity pay, however would like to use KIT days. Her employer states any hours will be paid at standard contractual rate.

My question is, if she uses any KIT days, will they be paid in addition to maternity pay and will they affect her maternity pay/leave?

Thanks

Best answers:

• It might be best to ask the employer.
  It's my employer's policy that KIT days are paid after you return to work and that any SMP or occupational maternity pay you receive counts towards the payment due - so if you work a KIT day when you're on half pay, essentially the OMP gets topped up and you actually receive the equivalent of half a day's pay extra. If you want to maximise your income it's best to save the KIT days for when all the maternity pay has run out.
• Thanks but I'm not sure how that would work.
  Are you saying to leave KIT days until the end of maternity pay but prior to maternity leave finishing?
• I'm sure others have told me that when they worked a KIT day they were paid the daily rate, and if they were still getting SMP then that contributed to the day's pay. So you got more overall if you worked after SMP finished but we're still on maternity leave. However my employer didn't want me to use my KIT days so that knowledge made no difference to me.
• I'm not sure whether this is staturory or local practice at my employer - but KIT days are paid at the daily rate of pay regardless of how many hours you are in the office for.
  So if you would normally work 7 hours if you were at work, you are paid for 7 hours for a KIT day regardless of whether you are at work for a half hour meeting and then go home, or whether you work a full day. I assume this is to recognise the fact that you would have the same travel costs regardless of length of time spent, and would probably incur childcare costs also.
  In view of the daily rate of pay most people at my employer will try to arrange their KIT days towards the end of their maternity leave because a) they are no longer receiving SMP at that point (assuming the have taken a whole year off) and b) because it makes sense for all concerned to use them to ensure a smooth return to work (sorting out systems access, mandatory training, getting up to speed with systems updates etc).
• Local practice: we pay for the hours you're in, not a full day!