Maternity Allowance

[RMNmama]

Hi...I can see there have been a lot of these threads but not really recent.

Apologies for the long ramble post 🙈

Basically, I didn’t work for my employer long enough to get SMP so I applied for maternity allowance. My employer took ages to give me the forms to say they weren’t giving me SMP so my claim was a little late. Then my baby was born at 36 weeks so I had to wait till she was registered before I could claim as they needed her birth certificate!

I was signed of sick in January and so my wages stopped (I don’t get sick pay!). So since January I’ve had no income at all. Baby was born early Feb I had sepsis and was very poorly so this delayed the claim slightly again!

I finally got a text on 19th April to say they received my claim but I’ve had nothing since and we’ve used up our savings since January 😭 I’m just wondering how long people waited from having the text to actually receiving any money?

Thanks 😊

Why don't you get sick pay? Do you not meet the min earnings threshold?

Sorry you had sepsis, hope all is better now.

Presumably you earned less than £118/week which is why you didn't get SSP?

You can make a claim for Maternity Allowance from 26 weeks and onwards, and you can get payments from 29 weeks and onwards. So you could have claimed it in January as soon as you were signed off sick.

You don't need a birth certificate to claim Maternity Allowance, you just need the MATB1.

For child benefit you need the birth certificate, have you claimed that too?

Have you checked whether you and your partner are entitled to anything else?

To answer your question, the gov.uk website page on Maternity Allowance says:
"You should get a decision on your claim within 24 working days."

Thanks for replies 😊 Sepsis is not fun! Luckily caught early and very much on the mend now 😊

I earned enough but I hadn’t worked at the trust for long enough (only took the post in late September). This is also why I didn’t receive sick pay!

My employer took ages to sort the MATB1 form and get it back to me and by the time they did I’d had my baby which is why I then needed the birth certificate to claim - I had to prove the birth and they told me I had to send the birth certificate!?

I had a text stating they’d received my claim and not to contact them for 6 weeks which is not till the end of May! I’d hoped that people generally heard back quicker than the 6 weeks. They said my first payment would be in June...I’m back at work in August so there’s not going to be much point in all the hassle it took to actually claim 🤣

Suppose it’s just a case of waiting...just getting really difficult without any income at all so I’m having sleepless nights worrying about money.

What date of pregnancy did you say you wanted the money? I had the 6 week wait and sent my forms late but I did say I wanted it to start from 29 weeks and had it all backdated

I had the 6 week text too. That was about 3 weeks ago...still waiting to hear back