Maternity allowance - think I qualify but not sure. Help!

[messylittlemonkey]

Hello
Does anyone have any experience of claiming maternity allowance?

According to the basic criteria, I qualify for MA and my employer has already given me the form to say that I don't qualify for SMP as my earnings are not high enough, so it seems fairly straightforwrd.

However, I had a thought earlier about wether or not I need to have paid national insurance recently to be able to receive MA. I haven't paid NI in my current employment of two years for the same reason that I don't qualify for SMP - i.e I don't earn enough. I've searched websites but can't find much info about it. I know that if you're self employed you have to show that you have paid some form of NI, but does that apply to an employed person too?

I phoned JobcentrePlus who were useless and basically quoted info from their website which I'd already read.

I'd just like to know if I can expect to get anything!

Thanks
MLM

You need to have earned over £30 per week average in 13 week period. No NI requirement.

you need to have worked for (any) 26 weeks of the 66 weeks before your due date. You also have to have 13 of these weeks (dont need to be concurrant) earning £30+. Give them payslip evidence of your best paid weeks as you MA amount will be based on this.ie you might not get the full £123 if your earnings have been low. They will only give you 90% of the 13 week average (up to £123).