What are Keeping in Touch (KIT) days during maternity leave?

Full answer

Keeping in Touch (KIT) days allow an employee on maternity leave (and equivalent adoption leave or Shared Parental Leave, where they are sometimes called SPLIT days) to work for their employer occasionally during their leave period, without it counting as returning to work early and ending their statutory leave and pay entitlement. **How many KIT days are allowed** An employee can work up to 10 KIT days during their maternity or adoption leave (in addition to, and separate from, any compulsory maternity leave in the first two weeks after birth, during which KIT days cannot be used). These 10 days are optional for both employer and employee -- neither can force the other to agree to KIT days, and using some or all of the allowance does not extend the total leave period. **What counts as a KIT day** A KIT day can involve any amount of work, from a single hour to a full working day, but each day on which any work is done, however brief, uses up one of the 10 available days -- there is no concept of a half KIT day. Common examples include attending a team meeting, a training day, a conference, or working a normal shift to help transition back. **Pay for KIT days** There is no statutory rate specifically for KIT days -- pay is a matter of agreement between employer and employee, though many employers pay the employee's normal contractual rate for the day worked. If the agreed pay for a KIT day is more than the Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) that would otherwise be due for that week, the employer generally tops up the SMP to reach the agreed KIT day pay, rather than paying both SMP and full salary on top of each other for the same week. If no KIT days are used in a given week, SMP for that week continues at the normal rate as if no work had been done. **Tax treatment** Any pay received for a KIT day, and any SMP received in the same week, is taxed and subject to National Insurance in exactly the same way as ordinary employment income, through PAYE. There is no special tax exemption for KIT day pay -- it is simply added to the employee's earnings for that pay period and taxed at their marginal rate. **Why employees use them** KIT days are often used to attend an important meeting, keep skills or relationships current in a fast-changing role, ease the transition back to work towards the end of leave, or simply to stay connected with the team and workplace changes during an extended period away. They are entirely optional and using none at all does not affect the employee's SMP or leave entitlement in any way. **Worked example** An employee on maternity leave, normally earning £600 a week, agrees to work one KIT day to attend a planning meeting, for which her employer agrees to pay a full day's normal pay of £120. Her SMP for that week (say, the standard flat statutory rate) would otherwise have been lower than £120, so her employer tops up her SMP to reach the agreed £120 KIT day pay for that week, rather than paying both amounts in full. The £120 is taxed through PAYE as ordinary earnings, and she has 9 KIT days remaining to use, if she chooses, before her maternity leave ends.

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