Does anyone here know about self-employed maternity allowance?

[JenKat]

Just wondering if any of you have looked in to this?

I work from home and run a small business. I plan to continue working up until my due date and pick up again not long after. I have been trying to inform myself on what kind of maternity allowance self-employed mums are entitled to.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks!

 

[KHTW]

Taken from the GOV website below. Sorry, don't have personal experience xx

''If you’re self-employed
To get the full amount of Maternity Allowance, you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby’s due.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will check if you’ve paid enough when you make your claim. They’ll write to you if you haven’t.

If you haven’t paid enough Class 2 National Insurance to get the full rate (£140.98 a week), you’ll get £27 a week for 39 weeks. You still need to meet all the other eligibility criteria to get this amount.

You may be able to get the full rate by making early National Insurance payments. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will send you a letter to tell you how.

You’ll need to pay using the reference number in the letter to get the full rate, even if you’ve recently made a payment through Self Assessment.''

 

[JenKat]

Thank you KHTW! That is helpful. Looks like I may have to ask my accountant how best to proceed in order to be sure.

 

[GBLiz]

Yes, i did this last year. You will need to be registered self employed and for the full amount you need to have been self employed for a certain amount of weeks in the claim period ( 26 weeks in the 66 weeks prior to the expected week of birth )You will need to fill a MA1 claim form which you can get online. They will process it and entitle you probably to the lower rate at first, because you probably wont have paid your NICs for that year yet due to them all being paid after you submit your self assessemt. They will then refer it to the NI office who will ask you if you want to pay your NIC contributions to which you say yes please and pay it! That then goes back to the maternity allowance department and they re-calculate it onto the higher amount. I had a bit of hassle with the NI dept not receiving the request from the MA dept but got there in the end. You can apply from 26 weeks preg or even after the birth as long as you do it asap. You dont get asked to prove income and it doesnt base it on how much you were earning. The standard MA on the higher rate was actually more than i was earning !!!!

just edited to say you probably wont have to ask your accountant its really simple to do

 

[JenKat]

Oh GBLiz, thank you! That's a great help. Really pleased to hear I can probably claim for this.

Could I kindly ask, if I come up against something super confusing that I just can't figure out when applying would you be OK with me messaging you with any questions?
I totally understand if not, as I'm sure you're busy, but just thought I'd ask as you clearly have experience in this.

Many thanks for your advice!

 

[GBLiz]

Oh GBLiz, thank you! That's a great help. Really pleased to hear I can probably claim for this.

Could I kindly ask, if I come up against something super confusing that I just can't figure out when applying would you be OK with me messaging you with any questions?
I totally understand if not, as I'm sure you're busy, but just thought I'd ask as you clearly have experience in this.

Many thanks for your advice!

yes thats fine. Honestly it isnt complicated though. Have you been employed by anyone else at all over the past year? I had done literally 4 hours of employed work and had to get some other form done aswell to show why i was not eligible for maternity pay from them....

just make sure you dont do any self employed work while on your maternity period though because as soon as you record any income coming in they would stop your maternity allowance.

If you havent been registered as self employed for 26 weeks you would only be eligible for lower rate but i guess as you are in tri 1 there are 26 weeks to be worked still even if you had only recently become self employed.....you will have to put the date thatyou plan to stop working but how late you leave it is entirely up to you.

you get MA for 39 weeks at the higher rate so if financially you are ok with it there is no need to rush to return to your business unless you wanted to...and you dont have to say how long you plan to be off work for

 

[JenKat]

Brilliant, thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

 

[flowerbomb]

How does it work if you don't work. I'm currently a full time student at uni.

 

[GBLiz]

i dont think it does work if you dont work! With my first pregnancy i wasnt registered as working and so i didnt get anything.