Self employed maternity allowance - complicated!

[smileygrapefruit]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place but could really do with some advice. Have read loads on gov.uk etc but haven't found a definitive answer.

I am self employed (sole trader), have been for 4 years. Definitely qualify for maternity allowance if I close my business. My question is: can I still claim MA if my husband takes over the running of the business for a couple of months? It would be on a lesser scale as he'd have to fit it around his job but I really can't just close for a few months.

Yes you can. You can also spend up to ten full days working within your business during maternity leave (and get paid for them) as keeping in touch days.

I'm also a sole trader. I qualified for MA and I employed staff to cover me and there were no problems.

I have also read loads of the gov info on this and remain confused so was pleased to see this thread!

I'm also a bit unsure about the keeping in touch days thing .. I work freelance visiting clients. I may only work between 1-3hrs a day some days. So would that count as one of my ten days despite not being a full working day? Or would it be up to say 80hrs in total, spread over more days (based on an average working day for most of say 8hrs)? Sorry if I'm not making sense!

I suppose what I'm asking is would it still be classed as a whole day out of my allowance if I only worked for one hour on that particular day?

ThisIs each day or part day would count. So if you worked one hour per day you would only do a total of 10 hours KIT.