Maternity allowance - am I stuffed?

[breadhead]

I am 23 weeks pregnant today and only just realised I may possibly be eligible for some maternity pay, but my work is pretty casual so don't know where I stand or what to do from here.

For the past 3 years or more I have earned around £300 a month from cleaning 3 friends' houses. This is a combination of cash in hand and bank payments. I also work as a freelance writer which I get paid around £250 a month for directly into my bank account but without any tax deducted. I also do exam invigilating for a local school which I am paid for on their official payroll but do not appear to be paying any NI contributions. Plus I do a few small, random online jobs e.g. surveys, which I get paid for on their payroll but again they have not deducted NI. I have also recently done a random novel editing job for a friend for which I was paid £500 into my bank account. Was I meant to declare this somehow? (not even sure how to 'declare' anything!)

Because I earn less than £10,000 a year I assumed I didn't need to declare anything as I wouldn't be taxed on it. Was this wrong, or even tax evasion?! eeek!

I am neither registered as self-employed, not have a small earnings exemption certificate. Embarrassingly, I know little about tax - thought I was simply topping up our family income legally.

Anyway, I am due in 17 weeks time. Do I have time to sort any of this out and be eligible for maternity allowance? Any advice very welcome!!

Maternity Allowance is for (many of) those who don't qualify for SMO @Viviennemary

SMP

I once registered as self employed and then didn't end up doing any self employed work. I didn't deregister and kept getting letters asking me for my tax return and then eventually fining me for not submitting it. I panicked, his my head in the ground and ignored it (I was quite young.) eventually after a couple of years I decided to face it, phoned them up and explained the situation and they send me an old tax return form for the years i'd missed. I completed these declaring my self employed income (£0 - so also below the threshold). They sent me a letter confirming the cancellation of my fines and that I didn't owe anything.

I know it's a slightly different situation to yours but in the same way I didn't owe anything. They were incredibly helpful and nice on the phone and didn't make me feel stupid or bad for not knowing. I would just phone them, explain you didn't think you had to declare as you were under the threshold and then take their advice. If you're under the threshold you shouldn't have to pay anything even though your tax returns will be late. I know that doesn't help with your mat leave but at least then you can feel everything is sorted and right in terms of tax