Marriage allowance

[Emkc44]

Hi all - hoping you could help.

I'm currently on mat leave, since October. My maternity pay is quite poor (6 weeks full pay and then SMP) so I now 'earn' very little. However, I am usually the higher earner in our household.

What I'm trying to work out is whether I can make use of the marriage allowance when for the rest of this tax year (pre October) I earnt far more than 12,000. As in, are we taking into account the whole tax years income? In which case I'd never be able to apply because this tax year and next will include some of my usual earnings.

Or is mat leave slightly different and you can just claim for the period you are on mat leave low pay?

Thank you!

My understanding is that it’s assessed over a whole tax year.

It's a whole tax year.
You might qualify for uc while on leave?

It's for the entire tax year but to qualify you must "normally" have an income lower than the PA so you don't qualify anyway. It's not supposed to be used as one-offs, it's an ongoing election.

Thanks all, that's really helpful to clarify things for me!