Client is employed pregnant EU lone parent. Baby due in August and cl meets all requirements for SMP which I am presuming she is entitled to since she would still technically be a worker and it is a benefit offered to national workers etc

However she is only on a temporary contract which ends in September. Employer has told her that it may be renewed at that point but he doesn't know that she is pregnant and therefore chances of it being renewed once he does know this are slight although of course not impossible.

So if her contract ends in September, can she claim SSP till that point and then move on to MA or must she continue to be paid SSP regardless of the contract ending. If the SSP ends with her contract, can she, as an EU citizen claim MA for the same reasons that she would be able to claim SMP and if not what are her other options apart from JSA. I would have thought that one month after giving birth wouldn't class you as temporarly sick.

Any help much appreciated

Corrections to the above - claimant is not in fact entitled to SSP because doesn't meet continuous work criteria so my question now is can she claim MA if meets requiements for that, after she becomes potentially technically unemployed if contract ends in September and is not therefore a worker or workseeker.

I know I keep answering myself but new scenarios keep occurring to me - I wondered if the fact that the Inland Revenue will continue to regard her as being employed whilst she is in receipt of MA will mean that she therefore retains right to reside or is she obliged to tell the Tax Credit Office that her contract has finished i.e. is the significance of the end of the contract superceded by the fact that MA will normally be continued to be paid despite dismissal, etc (or is that only applicable to SMP)