Maternity leave for childminders

[crouchingtigeress]

Thinking of registering, just wanted to clarify. Is it true that as c/m's are self-employed there is no formal maternity payment?

deffo self employed

dont know about maternity leave though

If you pay NI then there are some benefits....but I think the £2 a week version on NI doesn't include them.

The £7 a week version might .... but it would be SMP and only for 6 weeks ...I think If you ring the BA/IR or NI Contributions in Newcastle they would know.

BTW if you know you are going to get pregnant then you could put aside 20% of your earnings each week/month to give you extra money.

Have you thought aboput what your childmindees are going to do whilst you are ML....you might lose them all and have to start again after?

That is alot of food for thought KM, thank you. B'coz of the limited ML I will probably restrict time of to the minimum. I'm only intending to mind two children, (who will be at school age at that time), so hopefully I will be able to cope.

Thanks for the info.

i'm self employed (although not child minder) and you are entitled to the basic state mat pay (as long as you've paid your ni contributions). I would assume child minders are self employed otherwise who would they be employed by.

When you are self employed and paying NI you qualify for the maternity grant. I think this is now £100 a week (was £90 last time I had it). You have to make sure that you apply in advance as they take a while to start paying.

I'm self employed too and got the £100 (I think for 6 months - could that be right?). The rules have changed a couple of times but you need to check that you are paying the right NI contributions - when you register as self employed you should get some info from the NI people at Newcastle - if not chase them up.