Maternity pay when self employed

[shell1978]

Great after searching the net looks im only entitled to £27 a week

Im self employed nail technician and because im not mega busy i got a national insurance small business exemption cert and now i read becuase of this i can only claim £27 a week through job centre!!

Is this right does anyone know and is there any other help i can get?

 

[kat1988]

I'd check with cab, although you may not be entitled to smp through job centre you should be entitled to maternity allowance (which is paid at the same rate) failing that you should be able to get a grant(can't remember the official name but basically a hardship grant) of roughly the same amount xx

 

[Maru]

I found this quite helpful. http://www.maternityaction.org.uk/s...ebuilderfiles/commonmaternitypayquestions.pdf
From what I gather, Statutory Maternity Pay is based on anything you have paid NI on.

 

[Maru]

But - perhaps Maternity Allowance is different (in terms of NI). It's not that clear. I'm going to CAB on Monday to find out my best options as I am employed as well as self employed.

 

[monkeynut]

I'm afraid that is right...you only get the full amount if you pay class 2 NI (which is only something like 2.50 a week).

Actually- just seen how far gone you are...if you change to class 2 payments now you will be fine.