To Be upset That I won't get maternity pay because we had twins

[mummymog]

I registered as self employed 01/12/14, with an EDD of 04/06/15 - giving me just enough Weeks in my test period. I've paid 19 weeks of national insurance contributions (you need 13 to qualify) BUT we had twins who were induced on 11/05/15 so they're saying I could only have worked till then so I'm a week short! They know I was induced because my claim was so delayed in their system I phoned in a panic and the mansaid he'd write my induction date so they'd fast track it as urgent. I think if they're going off induction instead of EDD they should adjust my test period, which would put it back into the last few weeks of a previous employment and give me enough weeks again - or that they should go off my EDD like they do for everyone else and not discriminate against me because I conceived twins, who because of medical necessity.

Twins are expensive things, we could really have used the money. To make matters worse, one of girls was very ill when she was born - we've been transferred across the country and are 4 hours from home whilst she recovers in intensive care after major surgery. I've not even held her yet. I don't need the stress of this right now and I can't bear the thought of endless hours on hold on the phone, when I should be down by her bed or looking after my healthy twin.

Oh that's really tough.

Have you contacted Tamba at all? They might advocate for you or have advice at the very least.

Congratulations on your DTs!

YANBU

Nothing useful to add, but

Yanbu

They don't appear to be following their own guidelines. In order to qualifiy you only need 26 weeks employment in the entire year before you were due to give birth. You say in your op that you had previous employment before setting up your business which means you fulfil the 26 week criteria. So they should count that!

Sorry if this is a stupid question but are you eligible for Maternity Allowance/Benefit because, if you are, it may be the same as what you would get in Maternity Pay as a self-employed person. This was the case for me when I had DD. In addition to TAMBA, I would really recommend that you contact BLISS (charity for early and poorly babies) as they will be able to give you financial advice as well as general advice and support as a mum of premature babies. I found them great when I was in that situation.

Congratulations on your twins. Hope you will have them both home safe and well very soon.

Yanbu.

I don't understand much about this kind of thing because I bury my head in the sand, but it sounds like they've got completely the wrong end of the stick.

Surely they can't use your induction date instead of your EDD? That seems to be where the proverbial hits the fan...

I think op means maternity allowance, scone.

Unfortunately that's run through the Job Centre. Famed for not knowing their arse from their elbow and making life as difficult as humanly possible for people.

I think you just need to reapply with the 13 weeks previous to your dates and miraculously everything will be fine. They won't be able to process if they don't have the 13 weeks info. Once provided, no problem?

Congratulations, btw.

I think op means maternity allowance, scone.

Yes, I think you might be right!

OP: please get in touch with BLISS as they will be able to give you good advice re money and lots of other things too.

Do not re apply it will massivel? cause problems for you.

Ask them to look again at the decision and enclose your further information.

They go from either due date OR date of birth which ever is sooner

Question it.

Your qualifying weeks don't need to be consecutive and can be with different employers. The 13 weeks can be ANY thirteen weeks in the last 66 before your baby is born.

I strongly suspect someone is getting wires crossed.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

You might get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if one of the following applies:
you’re employed, but you can’t get Statutory Maternity Pay
you’re self-employed and pay Class 2 National Insurance (including Voluntary National Insurance) for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby’s due - the amount of Maternity Allowance you get depends on how much Class 2 National Insurance you’ve paid
you’ve recently stopped working

In the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you must also have been:
employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks
earning (or classed as earning) at least £30 a week over any 13-week period

You may still qualify if you’ve recently stopped working. It doesn’t matter if you had different jobs or periods of unemployment.

Use the maternity entitlement calculator to check your eligibility.

Maternity Allowance for 14 weeks

You might get Maternity Allowance for 14 weeks if for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due:
you’re married or in a civil partnership
you’re not employed or self-employed
you take part in the business of your self-employed spouse or civil partner
the work you do is for the business and unpaid
your spouse or civil partner is registered as self-employed with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and should pay Class 2 National Insurance
your spouse or civil partner is working as self-employed person
you’re not eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay or the higher amount of Maternity Allowance (for the same pregnancy)

If you haven’t paid enough Class 2 National Insurance

Contact Jobcentre Plus if you haven’t paid enough Class 2 National Insurance to qualify for Maternity Allowance when you make your claim (eg because you’re self-employed and haven’t filed your Self Assessment tax return yet).

HMRC will contact you to let you know how to make an early payment.

If you lose the baby

You may still qualify if the baby is either:
stillborn from the start of the 24th week of pregnancy
born alive at any point during the pregnancy

Bump x

I qualified for MA for working 26 weeks in the previous 66 weeks before EDD, even though my contact ended early in the pregnancy. It sounds like someone in the chain is ballsing it up.

I hope you can get it resolved quickly and simply, and have your family home soon xxx

I hope your MP gets back to you! It really sounds like they are screwing it up and need to fix it!

Whoops, yes I did mean Maternity alLowance. I had met all the criteria until they went from my induction instead of my edd- so I've only been given a 63 week test period :(

Registering self employed just to claim MA always has the chance of backfiring. Given you don't appear to have worked more than four months you don't really have a salary to lose. You can start the SE again as soon as you like, most SE people do so as not to lose contacts etc.

Littlemonstersrule, I registered as self employed because I realised I was making a bit of money selling paper cuts and didn't want to be guilty of tax avoidence - only found out about mat allowance afterwards. I will loose a source of income whilst not working- and trust me I won't have any hands free to do make papercits to sell for a long time.

Congratulations on the birth of your daughters, I hope your little one is doing OK in NICU. I'm sure you can speak to the DSS later on, don't worry about that now.

As for EDD v induction - maternity leave is triggered by the arrival of the baby, they wouldn't ignore that in favour of the EDD whether you had twins, triplets or a singleton! So I don't think the issue is anything to do with you having twins. They will take the 66 week period back from the date of delivery. Have you tried the maternity allowance calculator, it's a link on the page RedToothBrush mentioned upthread?