Anyone know lots about Maternity Allowance?

[DomesticG0ddess]

I have a specific question, which I am sure I can speak to someone official about - if I can get hold of anyone to speak to, that is.

MA is based on your choice of 13 weeks earnings during a 66 week test period, and you have to be self employed/employed for 26 of those week. I have now been self employed for about 26 weeks, and I don't really plan on earning anymore money. However, I only earned money for 7 of those week (I work freelance and v part time, around DS). I am happy with the amount of MA I will get from these 7 weeks, divided by 13. But what I need to know, is does it matter if I earned nothing for the other 6 weeks of the 13 week period?

Hope this makes sense. Thanks.

This is as I understand it...

I don't think it matters as long as you have earned £30 a week averaged over any 13 weeks in your test period. So it doesn't matter if for some weeks you didn't earn anything but you average will be grately reduced.

Hope that helps!

From what I recall from when I claimed it back in 2006, if you are Self Employed, you only need to have been paying self employed NI contributions (class 2?) - as long as you've been paying this for a sufficient length of time you do not need to do anything else. You only need to show proof of earnings if you are an employee (but don't qualify for SMP).