SMP or Maternity Allowance ?

[Melanie3103]

I am self employed - and have been for a couple of years now...

Does anyone know what I am entitled to, when the time comes - am I eligible for SMP ?#

Does anyone have any experience of this ??

x

 

[Rose83]

I'm not 100% sure - I think you would get maternity allowance. But if you go to the .gov.uk website there is a calculator thingy where you fill in your details and it will tell you what you can get x

 

[cassi]

I am self employed - and have been for a couple of years now...

Does anyone know what I am entitled to, when the time comes - am I eligible for SMP ?#

Does anyone have any experience of this ??

x

You will be eligible for maternity allowance, which is, weekly 90% of your income or £139 whichever is most. You must have worked 26 weeks prior to claiming and you can put through your best weeks in that period to get the higher amount, you must also have been paying cat 2 NICS, if you don't pay these by default through your income you can opt to pay them voluntarily to get the full amount of allowance. You can put your claim in from the 14th week before your DD, it's important if you fill the form in now you don't date it with a date before that time as it will mess up the claim, so the earliest you should send it is 26 weeks. I sent mine at 28 as from what I've heard it can take a while to process and I am claiming from the 15th June, but I might change to to claim 10 days sooner and take my first 10 days as my check in days in case I work during my mat leave (see below). Ask your midwife at your appointment for a MAT B1 form as you need to send that with your claim form because there's quite a gap between the 16 week appointment and the next one (28 weeks, well mine was anyway). If you google Maternity allowance claim form you can print it online. You can claim for 9 months and during your mat leave you can do max 10 'check in' days where you can work without it effecting your allowance.

Hope this helps x

 

[becsybabe]

Hi I'm currently Nyla on maternity leave I had my baby 1 week ago. I'm self employed and have been for 7 years. If you go onto the direct gov website there is firms you need to fill out for maternity allowence if you are entitled to the full amount you will get £140.98 a week which is paid either every 2 weeks or every month (your choice) if you haven't paid enough national insurance you will only be offered £27 a week however if they offer you that don't panic you will get the chance to pay off the national insurance off to top u up to the full amount xx