to not take maternity leave?

[jendaisy]

I am v confused about what the best thing to do is here, and trying to get any helpful info from the benefits office is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

I am 26 weeks pg and self employed. I am a sole trader although I do sometimes pay people to help me out on a self employed basis when I am busy. DP is on disbibility benefits and as an ex professional musician still receives some money in royalties. But I am 'the breadwinner', if you like, as I make good money from my business. I probably work around 30 hours per week at the moment, half of which is from home in my own time and half of which is driving around sourcing stock.

So as a self employed person I am entitled to Maternity Allowance, which is around £124 per week I believe, which is about a fifth of what I earn at the moment. And if you are claiming MA then you cannot work at all, not even a tiny little bit. So I don't really see how I can afford to stop working, as it's my income that pays for most things. I could carry on working if I had to, but I am a bit worried about how that will work in reality when I am knackered with a newborn to look after (although DP is very hands on and will help out a lot). Also, I am assuming that everything will go to plan and both me and the baby will be in good health after the birth, if that's not the case I don't really have a plan B. Just wondering whether anyone else has been a similar situation, as I am not sure if I am being a thicky and missing something blindingly obvious here?

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread (!), but I am self employed and a sole trader too, so faced the same issues as you re: maternity leave etc.

Do you issue your own dated invoices for work carried out? Could you space your invoices(and therefore dating of said invoices) in the most EFFICIENT way possible (careful choice of words!) so that you can maximise the period of time that you could obatin maternity benefit?

Bit last minute isn't it?

I would have thought you should have had a plan of action and backup worked out when you were deciding to get pregnant considering that your family depend on your income.
Presuming your circumstances have not suddenly changed?

With my first child, I had moved jobs while pregnant and therefore was only eligible for the £100 a week or whatever it was then.

I took 8 weeks maternity leave, because I could not afford to take any more than that (I am the breadwinner).

In your position, I'd plan to take 8 weeks (you can always start working again sooner and say no thanks to the rest of the maternity allowance) and NOT start work properly again until you've stopped bleeding. That is a good signal that your body is recovered.

But also bear in mind that a tiny newborn baby sleeps so much of the time that of course you can do all sorts of things around them (on your 10 KIT days, of course! The annoying thing about those KIT days is that, officially at least, you can't do two half days and call it one KIT day, as soon as you've decided that one day is a KIT day, then it counts as one of the ten. Bah.)

Thanks for all the suggestions (apart from Caininthepunt's). The KIT days sound like they could come in handy, maybe I could claim MA for 3 months or so and get loads of orders ready now to be sent while I'm on MA, and just do one day a week's buying.

So there is no rule against having an income whilst claiming MA? Is that right?

I trust your customers are not relying on you then?
Bitter experience has shown that some self employed do not factor in disruption and inconvenience caused by lack of planning for foreseeable gaps in service.

As I said, if I were you I would have put a little more planning into it. I concede it is not terribly helpful to point it out at this stage.

My work is not really like work to be honest - I sell second hand baby clothes so the buying bit involves going to people's houses, chatting, and looking at piles of baby clothes. Then there is the sorting into the sizes and packing away at home. And then sorting orders, ironing and sending out. A lot of the home bit I can pay someone else to do. And I have DP on hand 24/7 to help me out, so it's not at all stressful.

My customers are mums in Europe who sell English baby clothes, they are all lovely and very laid back and of course they understand that I will be slowing down for a little while around the birth of the baby.

CaininthePunt it's not that I none of this has occured to me before, but I have been struggling to find the answers I need from anywhere. I am not even 6 months pg, so it's not like I am giving birth next week (i hope), or have any intention of stopping work for a while yet.

Fair enough then, YANBU but you should save in case you need a break for any kind of reason.

everyone is different but i think i'd have to know i could get through the first six week's without even having to think about work - that would cover a c-section, any very minor complications and establishing breast feeding.

imo to not even have a way of getting by for six weeks is putting too much pressure on yourself.

So does anyone know if by having money coming into my account while I'm claiming MA I could get myself in trouble? Not that I would actually be working as I could get orders ready to go now and do any odds and sods on my KIT days.

Also I presume if I pay someone to work for me while I'm on MA that shouldn't affect my MA at all?

I started a thread about runnign a business and pregnancy.
I was after some advice but ended up writing a running diary of how I managed. (not financially but practically).
I did not claim maternity leave for the same reasons, there are tax reasons as well for which it just did not work out but I can't remember what. good luck, it can be done.

I'd say you should check with DWP as they pay MA. I believe there are earnings restrictions as well as restrictions on eligiblity.

JenDaisy - Last time I was pg, people I had money going into my business account - but it was for work done prior to sprogging, so not a problem. I work quite far in advance., so could drop down dead tomorrow and still have an income for three or four months!

They won't have access to your bank account though, so don't see how they'd know?

You can earn very little or lots and lots on your KIT days, it doesn't matter and you do not have to declare it.

You have to write to the relevant tax office to let them know when you want your MA to be paid and when you anticipate returning to work. Get it paid by standing order.
You also have to notify them when you have worked kit days
I would suggest you plan on taking say 12 weeks weeks off and write to them telling them when you are going on mat leave and when you expect to return.
Once you have worked your KIT days or know when you are actually returning write to them again.
Make sure you have copies of letters...you may find they inadvertently pay you for longer (you can claim MA for a max of 9 months) and if it is their fault, that's their tough luck!Although I think MA may affect CTC etc, not sure.
Someone above said you can pick and choose your KIT days...so you could lump work together all on one day or 'creatively' bill on the same day.
You can only work 10 days, so if you do an hour or a full days work that is one KIT day gone so have a think about that.
Good luck, hope all goes well

Thanks, that is very helpful! You should get a job working in my local Jobcentre Plus - a couple of weeks ago I spent a whole morning asking questions which you have just answered for me and got nowhere - you'd have thought I was talking Chinese to them!

I was self employed with my firt pregnancy and claimed maternity alliance but only for a very short time.

I think I took 2 weeks leave in the end but was able to keep my baby with me at work. One thing I made sure was that they were bottle friendly should I have needed to get to a meeting without her so one bottle of formula a day from the very beginning.
I did keep ' easier' hours for the first 2 months but like you I could earn more working, I needed to keep my business going so I only claimed 2 weeks of maternity allowance.
I did however have a relativley straight forward birth with few complications and took it easy in terms of work for the the first couple of months.My husband is also self employed which meant he also had more flexibility when it came to childcare arrangements.

They can also take quite a long time to process your MA application, so the sooner you get it in the better!