Maternity Allowance

[FCase15]

Hello!

I’ve been looking into the eligibility criteria for claiming maternity allowance and am confused.

When looking at the Maternity Allowance page on Gov.uk it states that to claim you must have worked 39 weeks of the 66 weeks before the baby is due. However, when filling out the claim for it only asks if you have worked 26 of the last 66 weeks. On various forums and threads here everyone also states that it’s only 26 weeks of work needed to meet the criteria.

Sooo… why is there only one webpage that mentions the 39 weeks instead of 26?! I don’t know what to think.

Can you link to the page that states 39 weeks?
Or is it actually saying it gets paid for 39 weeks?

You can get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if in the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you’ve been:

• employed or registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks
• earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks - the weeks do not have to be together