Maternity Allowance Help

[GinGeum]

Asking here because the idea of ringing HMRC with a 6 day old is fairly high on my list of jobs I don’t want to do...

I applied for the government maternity allowance but I’m a bit confused about what I’ve been paid. Basically, for the last year or so I’ve just been earning around £30 per week self employed (not every week) and so have been below the tax & NI contributions. I received a letter to say I would receive £29 maternity allowance per week, and the letter gave me the option to pay a voluntary NI contribution, which I did.

Since paying the contribution, I’ve now received another letter saying I’m now entitled to £145.18 per week MA. The letter came while I was in hospital last week and have just seen it in my bank account this morning.

How can this be right? That is way too much, surely. I was under the impression I had to pay a NI contribution to be entitled to the £29 per week MA, but did I misunderstand and paying that has made me eligible for some statutory amount?

My understanding is that if you have not paid NI then you cannot get the highest rate.

To get the full amount of Maternity Allowance, you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby’s due.

So even if you had paid the voluntary NI amount then by the above logic you wouldn't be entitled to it. Otherwise surely it would state that you would be given the option to pay voluntary NI mount which would entitle you to the full amount?

If you've been given the option to pay voluntary NI, then that will give you the higher amount.

Hit post too soon. By paying the voluntary contribution, you'll have paid enough NI to be eligible for the increased amount (that's why they gave you the chance to pay it in the first place).

From the government website:

To get the full amount of Maternity Allowance, you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby’s due.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will check if you’ve paid enough when you make your claimm_. They’ll write to you if you have not.
If you have not paid enough Class 2 National Insurance to get the full rate (£145.18 a week), you’ll get £27 a week for 39 weeks. You still need to meet all the other eligibility criteria to get this amount.
You may be able to get the full rate by making early National Insurance payments. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will send you a letter to tell you how.

The latter is what the letter they sent you has enabled you to do. You've now paid the correct amount of NI.

Thank you, that makes sense now!