What are "keep in touch" (KIT) days?
Employees can work up to 10 days during their maternity, adoption or additional paternity leave. These days are called "keeping in touch" (KIT) days. KIT days are optional - both the employee and employer need to agree to them.
The employee’s right to maternity, adoption or additional paternity leave and pay isn’t affected by taking KIT days.
Feature Overview
✅ KIT days are calculated based on your daily rate for base pay calculation method. You. can check this by choosing Company Settings from the left, Payroll set-up, then the Calculation preferences section.
✅ The daily rate can be overwritten if you'd like to adjust the amount paid.
⚠️ HMRC guidance states that any time worked on any particular day is counted as a full KIT day. PayFit follows this guidance to ensure the employee works no more than 10 KIT days.
❌ KIT days are only calculated for maternity, paternity or adoption leave, and not shared parental leave. Instead, you should use a Pay item.
How to add KIT days for an employee
To add a KIT day to an employee:
From the employee's record, click the Leaves tab.
Under the Parental leave section, select Maternity leave.
Click Add KIT days.
Enter the date(s) of the KIT days.
The daily rate is calculated based on your company settings. If necessary, you can override this rate.
Click Add KIT days.
What should you expect to see on the employee's payslip when adding KIT days?
Keeping in touch (KIT) payments appear as a single line on the payslip. This also applies if the employee works more. than one KIT day in the month.
FAQs
Should I still pay SMP on a KIT day?
It’s the employer’s discretion as to whether you pay KIT days as a top-up to the SMP daily rate, or pay a full day’s work on top of the SMP already received. What employers can’t do, is to end SMP for a day to pay a KIT day instead as this would end their maternity leave and the employee would have to return to work.
What's the minimum rate to pay for a KIT day?
Excluding statutory maternity pay, any additional payments for the hours worked should be no less than the hourly rate of the national minimum wage.
E.g. The employee has taken one KIT day, to attend two hours of training. At the minimum wage rate of £10.42, the employee must receive at least £20.84 in addition to their daily rate (calculated at one-seventh) of statutory maternity pay.
How do I top-up SMP to the daily rate?
In PayFit, KIT days are paid at the employee's full base pay daily rate on top of SMP. However, you can reduce the daily rate to the difference between the daily SMP rate and the employee’s daily rate when adding the KIT day.