Maternity benefits for self-employed?

[Straightforward]

Hi wise ones!

Does anyone know whether I'll be eligible for any maternity allowance or similar, as I'm self-employed? Or where could I find out without having to spend 3 hours waiting in some god-forsaken benefits office?!

Thanks!

A very very very very small amount, SMP, £100/week IRCC.

Sorry. Been there, twice. Both my maternity leaves cost me about six grand. And I was only off for four months.

Long thread on this just this week. Basically you can get £106 a week maternity benefit. You can get a form from your post office or your local jobcentre and do it all by post. Just ring the job centre - number is in the book and they will send you the form. They will also talk you through it if you, like me, find it completely baffling!

You can get the form on the net, although not the explanatory booklet. Unfortunately it's a real pain to do without the booklet. Some midwives have a copy.

It is £106 per week (or 90% of earnings, calculated in an unecessarily complicated way) for six months and if you do any work at all during the six months you lose it from then on (very annoying if you have to do one or two little bits of work during mat leave. As motherinfurrierfestivehat says it's little enough as it is.).

£106 is the maximum though! And if you do bits of work, invoice for it after your maternity leave is over.

heres the form!

Sorry - should have said £106 or 90% if lower .

Not sure about the invoicing thing. I'm a bit uptight about stuff like that, and so I rang to ask about work done during the 6 months but invoiced afterwards. Spoke to someone at my local social security office who sounded like she was about 12 and didn't understand the query.

I gave up and asked them to stop my MA, as thought it wasn't worth taking any sort of risk for the amount involved. Probably a bit over-cautious.

deepandcrisp, any bits of work i did during my mat leave, I invoiced aither after I went back to work, or back dated the invoiec (expklaining in advance to clients why that was).... who is going to check anyway? motherinfurrierfestivehat, sorry to hear your mat leave cost you so much, but also slightly releived to know that I'm not the only one! Am still trying to catch up with all the costs of me not working etc, it's a bu**er isn't it?!

sorry for typos!

I know, Orangina; it's one of the huge problems with self-emploment, and BIG reason for not doing it again.

... and then going back to work again with childcare costs being non tax deductable, augh!!!!! But that's another story/thread...

Thanks everyone. I don't earn loads at all, so was quite excited about £106/week as it's probably just less than what I get anyway.

What a great resource MN is!

My maternity leave cost me - I think, I don't dare look to closely - between 20 and 30K! Aaargh!

I'm self employed & must have been one of the very few people who was actually better off than at work.As I only work part time,I came out about £50 a week better off.Shame it ended just before Christmas though,I'm struggling to manage now.

I wish I'd thought about invoicing customers at a later date.I turned down loads of work over the summer.

Mirage - how did you do that? Sounds like I'm in the same boat as you.

I was very careful which weeks I put down as my qualifying 26 wks.I picked the weeks with the highest pay.Even so,I was surprised that I got the full £106.00.

Good luck & if you need any help filling in the forms,CAT me.I've done them twice.{smile}

Thanks Mirage - will do!