Maternity allowance

[emiliel]

So I'm currently off on maternity leave, however I don't think I will be returning to my job due to the costs of childcare in my area and wanting another child.

Anyway, we are planning on trying for our second very soon and I've looked up maternity allowance. I can only get maternity allowance if I had been employed at least 66 weeks before my due date, as I've been on maternity leave does this still count as employed?

I would say it counts because you’re still employed by the company, just on leave

Yes it does. But you need to have earned in 26 weeks of the 66 before your 25th week of pregnancy.

You will still be counted as employed when on maternity leave. You need to have earned at least £30/week in 13 weeks of the 66 weeks before the due date of your baby too.

You only get 90% of the average salary across those 13 weeks or £156.66 (whichever is lower). If you were using your maternity pay as earnings then you would be getting less than that 2nd time round.

There isn't a cut off of 25 weeks before the due date for maternity allowance. The time runs right up to the due date of the baby.

Yes, you can claim maternity allowance if you've been off on maternity leave as long as you were still receiving maternity pay during the relevant period. My kids are 20 months apart and I left my job at the end of my mat leave with ds1 and was able to claim maternity allowance for ds2. You do have to have your kids quite close together for it to work and if ttc takes a while you might run out of time to claim