Maternity allowance

[passthemustard]

I'm expecting a baby at Christmas and wanted some clarification on maternity allowance.

I'm self employed (for only one year at present) my first year of trading involved a lot of set up costs and I haven't made a profit. I haven't submitted my tax return yet, it's with my accountant.

I will have paid class 2 NICs even though my profit was below the threshold.

My profit will be considerably more this year without the start up costs. Around £12-15k depending on how the rest of the year goes.

Obviously there will be a period of time after the birth I won't be able to work and I was hoping to claim maternity allowance to make things easier during that time.

I went onto gov.com and it says I needed to have earned £390 per week or more for at least 13 weeks during the 66 weeks preceding the birth. (£5070) I will have earned double that during these weeks in total but I don't think I will have ever hit £390 in one week! I don't understand.

Can anyone advise?

I just read the page I thought you were talking about and it was 30 pound per week it said not 390. Can you check again and post the link?

Oh yes, you may be right! It was on the calculator that it said £390 but I think it must be in total over the 13 weeks! Omg can't believe I misread that!

Yeh it’s in total! Ha ha I looked at the actual underlying guidance😄 Happy to be of help.

God OP you panicked me there. I'm going to be claiming this next year and £140 a week isn't much as it is, but the lower rate in £30 a week so got worried there 😂

In my defence if you just read quickly it does look like you have to earn £390 a week for 13 weeks 😂 that's my defence and I'm sticking to it - or baby brain 😂