How much maternity allowance?

[georgianwindow]

I will be taking maternity leave from Sept 2023 and am self employed. I am trying to work out how much maternity allowance I will get because I need to budget for my time off and know how much of a hit we will be taking...

I am finding it impossible to find anything online that tells me exactly how to work this out. There is a lot of SMP but nothing for MA.

My accountant has told me I will qualify for MA but there is a big difference between the lower payments of £27 per week, and the upper payments of £172 per week.

Does anyone know how to work this out (roughly, doesn't need to be to the penny) or where I can use a calculator for self-employed people to use?

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance

Explains what you can get x

Thank-you. I know what I can potentially receive but there's quite a gap between £27 a week and £172 a week so I was trying to work out if there was a way to find out roughly what I will actually receive a week...this will hopefully mean I can budget for my time off a bit better. I'm not a high earning business I don't know if I will most definitely get the £172 a week (nothing explains how much you have to pay in class 2) but even if it is £100 a week it would be handy to know the figures.

The upper limit depends on your NI contributions. If you haven't made enough then they will allow you to make extra contributions to ensure you get the maximum amount

You can increase your Maternity Allowance by paying more Class 2 National Insurance contributions.

After you’ve applied for Maternity Allowance, HMRC will tell you how many additional Class 2 National Insurance contributions you need to pay.

If you pay your additional Class 2 National Insurance contributions, you’ll get £172.48 per week for 39 weeks.

Class 2 National Insurance contributions are £4.01 per week.

Thanks this is helpful