Pregnant and self-employed

[newbie30]

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and self-employed. My husband and I run a business together, which is in it's early stages and not yet making much money. We both work long hours and I'm concerned about how this will work later in pregnancy and in the early days after birth.

In some ways it's easier as I mostly work from home and don't have to ask for time off for antenatal appointments etc, but I'm worried about how much extra workload my husband will have to take on and the loss of income when I am unable to work as much.

Though I don't envy friends having to do 9-5 Mon-Fri, at least they know that they will get maternity leave after a certain date. None of the information I've been given about working/maternity leave seems to apply to me. Does anyone else have experience of pregnancy while self employed and how to deal with it? I'd really appreciate some advice.

Hi Newbie!

Congratulations, I'm self employed too, work with my husband in catering. This is our third baby.

You ought to be entitled to SMP, it's about £120 pw for 20 weeks I think, check out direct gov website, should all be on there. It means that you can't work (at all) though when your receiving the money, I think.

One of our staff just went off on maternity leave...it's costing us a bloody fortune!!

No favours for small businesses I'm afraid, but SME is better than a slap in the face with a wet kipper. Maternity benefits as an employee are pretty sweet, still would rather work for myself though....not like we're in it for the money anyway is it?!

Hope this helps, and good luck x

hi, i'm self employed too and am about to go off on maternity leave. some info here-hope it helps!

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018869

:)

Maternity Allowance is there for the self-employed

I'm self employed and have to claim maternity allowance. It's about £124 per week for 39 weeks. You can claim from 11 weeks before your due date.

Hope this helps.

God, my 'advice' was way off the mark!! I was clearly away with the fairies last night!!

Hope you've found the info you need...d'oh!

That's what happens when biscuit intake is limited, valueable lessons have been learned...

I'm in the same situation however my Accountant is incompetant have just fired him before our company got dissolved! - Another story sorry for going off topic

Any way we pay VAT, Corporation tax and employers national insurance so to save some money had been advised to pay below the threshold where you need to pay NI and tax, we made up the rest of our money to cover bills and mortgage etc in dividends.

Because I haven't been paying NI on my PAYE I am not entitled to Maternity Pay even the £120 ish a week :( Make sure you don't fall into the same issue as me!

Depending on your income you can get benefits but you have to be earning quite low between you and your partner.

I am speaking to the Citizens advice bureau and a new accountant as I'm not sure how we will cope so will let you all know if I find something usefull!

Thanks for all the advice guys, have got a bit of information about Maternity Allowance, and hopefully it should help.

I'm sure it'll work out ok, it's just going to be more difficult for a bit, but as you said Mouse, we're not in it for the money :)

Good luck with your new accountant Emsyboo. I'm going to look into it now to make sure that I have NI and tax up to date, but may have the same issues with low pay/dividends.

It's good to know I'm not alone, there is so much information about making sure you get your entitlements from your employer, and so little about self-employment - thanks for your replies.