Any childminders successfully claimed maternity allowance?

[Adviceinscotland]

How do you "prove" how much you have been earning?

I give my parents a bill every month and keep a duplicate copy for myself but I'm thinking this will not be enough to prove my income.

I don't have a business account as I use the cash to pay dd's dance classes/credit card bills etc.

It shouldn't have anything to do with your earnings, it's to do with whether you've been paying your Class II National Insurance contributions. Unless you're about to give birth it's probably not too late to backdate to the beginning of this tax year and start paying them going forward.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018869

But you get either £125 a week or 90% of your earnings.

I claimed it while working part time 2 years ago (had exemption certificate) and I had to send pay slips in.

It's been 4 years since I did this but I'm sure it was either a fixed amount or 90%, whichever was the LOWEST? I certainly didn't get paid 90% of what I was earning and I didn't have to produce any evidence! And yes, was based on my NI.

You get whichever is the lower of those, not 90% of whatever you've been earning so it'll never be more than £125. As long as you've earned more than £30 a week in your qualifying period it should be fine. You'll have completed tax returns so they probably take that as their starting point. Have a chat to the JobCentre Plus people, I'm sure they'll be able to help.

Yes I meant to say whatever was lower.

It's my first year self employed so not done a tax return yet.

I think you just say how much and they believe you, then when you do the tax return and / or you get audited they check it then.

Ok thanks everyone. Just its alot of money and I'm worried about not getting it.

It's nothing to do with your profit, the 90% of earnings rule applies to people who are employed.

As self employed it depends entirely on your Class 2 contributions, if you have paid these for 13 weeks (and been self employed for at least 6 months) you qualify for the maximum amount of MA of £135.45pw (goes up in October) for up to 39 weeks.

That's fantastic advice, thank you. Just what I was looking for.

I cant see any reason now why I would not be able to claim which is a huge weight of my mind.