Guide to freelance paternity leave

Can self-employed fathers claim paternity pay? The answer is a resounding no - fiscal support for freelance paternity leave is almost non-existent.

There is currently no form of statutory paternity pay for freelancers or the self-employed. 

With that in mind, there’s no better time than right now to work out where you stand - and what you need to do to make your self-employed paternity leave as financially viable as possible. 

“Plan ahead!” recommends Christen. “For freelancers, it is even more important to plan the logistics of managing your business while taking time off, and you may need to save money in preparation for taking unpaid leave.”

Dootson has similar advice for freelancers. “Save as much as you can prior to baby’s arrival so that you have a buffer to help towards the change in income that your partner will receive,” he says. “Try to line up jobs with companies that will be lenient and understanding of your new family, also be ready to change the efficiency of the way that you work as you won’t have as much time to be free and on-call.”

Factors you might want to consider include:

1. How much leave would you ideally like to take?
   
   There’s no predicting how the birth of your child might happen, no matter how meticulously you and your partner have prepared your birth plan. When it comes to your paternity leave, it could be wise to have a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A assumes that everything goes as expected with the birth of your child, and that your partner makes a speedy recovery; Plan B is there in case your partner needs more support than anticipated due to healing taking longer than initially planned.
    
2. How much money would you ideally need for paternity leave?
   
   Decide on the precise amount you need to be able to live comfortably during the time planning to take for your paternity leave. This will allow you to work out whether or not you’re realistically able to make this sum - whether by saving up or undertaking additional projects - in time for your baby’s due date. 
   
   If you have a partner who will also be on parental leave, make sure you factor-in their finances, too. Crunch your numbers ASAP to allow you to have the strongest chance of being in the most comfortable position by the time your baby arrives. 
    
3. Are you able to save any money?
   
   Whether it’s by cancelling that pricey (and under-utilised) gym subscription or by cutting your latte habit in half, work out how you can save some money by trimming current unnecessary expenditure. Sounds simple, is simple - and can add up quickly, too. Investigate the best bank accounts out there to make sure you can save your money in the smartest possible place.
    
4. Are you able to take on any extra work?
   
   Do you have the time to work with additional clients, or to take on new projects? If so, make sure your rates represent the worth of your services (because now is categorically not the time to be modest in your pricing!) and save any money made straight into the account mentioned above. If you can’t commit to new clients, make sure you keep your existing ones happy, including by making it clear how you’ll handle their work while you’re off. (See What should you do with your freelance business when on paternity leave? below.)

Depending on the services you offer and the way you work, arranging ‘cover’ can prove more beneficial than shutting up shop for the duration of your paternity leave. In its most basic form, this could entail asking someone you trust to keep an eye on your emails; in its more complex form, it could involve distributing clients across one or two trusted peers to ensure they don’t receive a dip in the service they’ve come to expect from your business.

Whilst it might sound relatively straightforward, you still need to take it seriously and treat it as a business decision, no matter how close you and your peers might be. 

For example, picture the situation: your first child is due in October. You’ve worked out your finances and have decided to take eight weeks of paternity leave. You have a handful of long-standing clients who appreciate that you’re taking time off but will still require a degree of servicing whilst you’re off. Instead of losing them to another freelancer, you elect to pass them over, temporarily, to a trusted industry peer who you’ve known for years. When you return from leave in January, you discover that the peer has poached one of your clients. 

So how can you safeguard yourself against this situation potentially arising?

“The legalities in this situation will come down to what the contractual agreement is between the freelancer and the trusted peer,” advises Guest. “If the work that the freelancer does cannot be stalled for a brief period to avoid the need to hand work to someone else, it would be advisable to have a commercial contract drawn up between the parties involved so that it’s clear what everyone is agreeing to from the outset and any recourse in the case of poaching.” 

Whilst you might be confident that you have no reason to doubt your colleague, it’s fundamentally easier - and safer - to have a clear-cut agreement in place before the cover period begins. That way, there’s scope for neither confusion nor deception, and your relationships with both your colleague and your client can be retained intact. There could also be value in pencilling in the occasional catch-up with your clients, just to keep in touch and find out how they’re getting on. 

Also give thought to how soon you’ll start to pass over information to your chosen cover. “If you wish to organise cover for your period of leave, I would recommend doing it as early as possible,” suggests Christen. “Practical steps to help with this include informing all customers in advance that you will be taking time off and ensuring that the person covering for you does not have any outstanding queries before you go on leave. This will all ensure a smooth transition, so you can enjoy your time on paternity leave.”