cm: Anyone know about maternity pay?

[h27]

Please help i am due to give up chilminding in late jan as i would like to have some time off with my ds before my baby is born! Has anyone claimed maternity pay? And if so how many weeks do you have to be working etc to claim? Thanking you in advance. H27

for your rights, look at teh Equal opportunities website, or Plamer WAde in London website: both v good

Having recently claimed maternity allowance (payment as a self-employed person)I have all the info! You are entitled to MA if you have been self-employed for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due. Your average weekly earnings have to have been at least £30 a week. You need to put a claim for MA in by the end of your 26th week of preganancy, or soon afterwards, and it is paid for upto 26 weeks. Hope this helps.

thanks very much to you both for responding, but does that mean you have to of paid the full NI stamp for all those weeks? I started childminding in aug and will be 29 weeks pregnant early jan! i will be giving up for 3 months or so!! I worked out that it is just about 26 weeks that i have worked for, so i am hoping i will be entitled. Thanks

I'm not sure about that, as i had paid the full NI contribution. I think as I understand it, you will still be entitled to something, maybe just not the full amount. You only receive maternity allowance for the time that you are not working ie in your case three months. Your local Jobcentreplus will be able to give you more information - supposedly!!

i phoned my local jobcentre about it and the woman couldn't have been more helpful. i told her i hated filling in forms so she suggested i call her when they came through the post and we'd do them together. she released the money the very next day. deffo phone them, they were very good to me.

Yes I am getting maternity pay atm... I only get 27 a week but I earnmed only a minimal amount with one mindee... the job centre pay it through maternity allowance. I get it for 26 weeks, the same amount of time as smp. I think it's 70% of your average pay from any 13 weeks in the 26week period before you are so many weeks preg... not entirely sure now but the job centre plus website will tell you all.

And even if you aren't entitled to that you have to fill in the same forms to get incapacity benefit which I think is something like 66 pounds for six weeks, or something like that.

I was told when I phoned up that I would automatically get the full £108 a week as I am self employed childminder taht has full timers. Just need to send the forms in later in the month.

As long as you are paying your class 2 nat ins or I think if you have an exemption certificate for low pay you get the full £108 per week. The amount you actually earn doesnt have anything to do with your maternity allowance.
The rest of my post would have read the same as laurenypops about time you have to work etc. I got my maternity allowance in march. hth
Remember to claim your surestart maternity grant too if your eligible. I got the full £500.
Kizzypie

I have an exemption cert and I didn't get full amount but from what I gather it is how leaniant your job centre is on how much you get.

help

i have just realised i havent been paying my nat ins.

sounds ridiculous i know but i seem to have completely overlooked.

im planning on another baby so how will this affect me?

can i pay the backdated amount to keep up to date with it and qualify for maternity pay?

I am not sure about how much Ni you have to pay as i think i am going to be short of about 3 weeks out of the 26 weeks! I really dont want to loose out on my maternity pay if pos! I really dont know if you can back date it!! I am filling out my forms now to send off in december! i have had one child for a while now and really dont know how much i am entitled too. H27

I'm sure you can back date NI pay if you ring your tax office I think they call it voluntary contributions... I heard of it after I had applied for my mat pay and found out if I had paid £3.10 a week for my 26 weeks qualifying period I would have recieved the full £108 per week. Def worth while paying it to get the full benefit.
Just ring your local tax office and say you want to pay it, and they will let you and you will occur no penalties as long as you haven't been working for more than three months... You don't have to tell them you are doing it to get your MA pay

Ive been working alot longer than 3 months

Ive rung the tax office, they are sending me a form and a bill!

So.....do you have to be up to date for 26 weeks before the baby is BORN or before you get pregnant?

Hi! I am just going through all my forms at the mo and they seem to be quite daunting! I think you have to work 26 weeks before the baby is born to get ma!! But not 100% sure on that!! I am so worried i am going to miss out!!

26 weeks beofre the baby is born.

Don't worry too much about being a week or two short, I actually worked mine out to being one week short by four days [grrrr] but they still paid me. Although only £27 a week, so hardly a huge amount (but better than nothing)... I actually think we should qualify as chances are you were looking for a mindee well and beyond 26 weeks before you were preg.

ok so i have 2 mindees and earn 500 a month

what might i get?