Maternity pay

[MintChocChip147]

Hi
I'm a childminder and planning on getting pregnant this year and was just wondering if anyone knew what the situation is about maternity pay.
Would I be entitled to some kind of benefits/maternity pay from the government while I had a few months off from childminding to have my baby?
Starting to wish I was employed by somebody as it is going to be a real struggle having absolutely no money while I take time off to have a baby!
Thanks

Assuming you aren't an employee of your own company, it's probably maternity allowance you need to look into. here.

Thanks Amanda, that really helpful

Interestingly (and unless the rules have changed recently, I last looked about 3 years ago) as it's a benefit, MA isn't subject to income tax. Whereas SMP is. So whilst you don't get the first six weeks at 90% of pay (so it is lower than SMP in that respect) you may get more for the remaining 33 weeks (or however long you take off).

Search previous threads - this question is asked about once a week

oops, meant to say this question is asked about once a week here or in the Freelancers/Self Employed topic

It will be Maternity Allowance you should get. You need to be registered self-employed with HMRC. I assume you are already. However, there are 2 levels of MA. Assuming you are paying class2 NI contributions for the required qualifying periods you should get the higher rate approx £130, but if you have a Small Earning Exemption certificate during the qualifying period you will only get a flat rate of approx £30 regardless of whether you have paid NI as well. So if you do have a SEEC get it cancelled asap and start paying class 2 NI.