Self employed and pregnant. Which benefits if any?

[Jhas]

Hi, I have just found out I am pregnant, the same week I have registered as self employed. I have done this because i was made redundant in May 2010, and I have had minimal luck trying to find work ever since. Whilst I am really happy that i am expecting a baby, I am also very worried where the money will come from. My DP has a fairly good income, but has financial commitments which limit his income buy a significant amount. Does anyone know what sort of benefit help I might be entitled to since I won't get maternity leave due to being self employed. I am really worried we won't have enough money to cope.

Maternity Allowance, google it. :)

In addition, obviously when we started trying for the baby I had the promise of enough work to not worry about this, but this fell through so we find ourselves here.

As long as you have adequate NI contributions you will get statutory maternity pay from the government which works out about £480 per month (ish - I can't remember exactly) then after baby arrives you will get childbenefit of £80 a month on top of that (ish, again). I think it can be claimed for 9 months. Not a salary but better than a kick in the teeth.

Blimey, that would REALLY ease the burden! Thanks for the input. I am furiously googling right now! :)

You just need to be up to date on paying your national insurance. I wasn't first time around, but made sure I was second time around!

Direct Gov website. You get maternity allowance instead of SMP but apart from the first chunk of 90% salary that you miss out on the restbis about the same I think.

yep, maternity allowance and child benefit. I know what you mean about work dropping off though - wish I hadn't told any of my clients until v v late! : )

With the national insurance contributions, I am paying the ones for being self employed, but was thinking about claiming the small earnings exemption - does anyone know if that would mean I wouldn't be eligible for mat allowance?

You will be able to do 10 days work during your maternity leave without losing any of your maternity allowance, so that gives you a chance to boost your income if you need to!

Also, unlike SMP, Mat allowance is tax free, so doesn't count against your yearly income, which is of benefit when calculating the amount of tax credits you will receive.

Greedychops I'm fairly sure the exemption cert would count against your mat allowance, as it's based on a percentage of your income. Not worth the risk for £2ish a week imo.

Be careful ... you need to have had 26 weeks of paying class 2 before 26 weeks pregnant.... or something like that. DEf check it out.. I only just scrapped through!

No that's fine - I have been paying it and so will just carry on - small price to pay as you say for maternity allowance.

How have those of you with small businesses carried them on during mat leave? Did you just take a small time off, or get someone in to run things for you? Or fit things into the 10 days?

yes, i think the exemption certificate reduces the amount of MA you get quite considerably, so not worth doing now!

Have you actually registered the business with HMRC for tax returns etc, I've had a huge amount of problems with MA because I forgot to do that within 3 months but still paid my NI.