Maternity Allowance

[comtessa]

Apologies if this has already been covered, I did have a quick check and couldn't find anything.

For people who have claimed MA, how long did it take for it to get paid? And if you requested it to start from a certain date, did it come through on that date? DC1 due end November, no entitlement to maternity pay from current job which I'm finishing at the end of October. How soon should I get application in? Better to go into jobcentre or to post off form?

Thanks for any advice/experience.

Bump

As far as I remember it was paid quite quickly. I handed my form in at the jobcentre, although they didn't seem to know much about it there.

I think it's paid in arrears as I wanted it to start on Sept 13th and I got a letter saying my account would be credited Oct 6th. The actual process of sending everything in and getting it approved was very quick though.

I sent everything in a couple of weeks ago (about the 14th I think), requesting it start, backdated, from 8th Sept. I haven't heard anything yet though.

i called them about a week ago and they have said it's about a 9 week wait although that could be different in different parts of the country! hopefully it will be a bit sooner.

:)

hi, two days after i went on my mat leave i got a letter from my work saying i wasent entitled to mat pay cause i work part time so i was left in the dry that was at the beginning of september ,sent a form in for mat allowance and still not heared anything yet, i hve for it to be backdated but waiting to find out if i will get it is a pain and hve no money just now,baby due on 14th november

You can download the (huge) form from the direct.gov site.

As far as I've been told, ideally, it needs to be sent in 14 weeks before the baby's born (according to the date on your MATB1).
They will then send another form to confirm the dates of maternity leave.

If I were you, I would download the form, and make sure you have everything you need to fill it in, call the helpline (on the second to last page of the form) and find out what you need to do.

Were you employed in the 25th week of your pregnancy?
If so you need to have an SMP1 form from your current employer stating that you are not eligiable to SMP.

You must send this in with your application otherwise they just send everything back to you - as they've just done with me as I didn't have the SMP1 form from my employer even though the person I spoke to at the job centre said to send in the form and then forward on the SMP1 form after.
They also lost my MATB1 form in the returning process so I'd suggest waiting and sending it all in together so hopefully they have no excuses to return it all to you. Also photocopy everything you send in to them so you can always send them in a copy of a copy if they lose things!

You can send in the form up to 2-3 months after your baby is born and get it back dated if you need to.

Babyclub - might be worth starting a different thread - your maternity rights as a parttime worker are no different than from a fulltimer. You should be entitled to SMP??

You need to get it sent off pretty quickly. They dealt with mine very promptly though.

My first payment was the arrears that I was owed. As I opted for payment every 4 weeks as opposed to every 2 weeks, I will be paid into my bank account every fourth Wednesday.

lal123, my employer said that cause my wages where only 94.40 a week it was under the £97 that u should earn before u can be entitled to mat pay i did send my form in with a letter from hr smp1 and payslips and my mat b1 just waiting to hear something back now fingers crossed

apologies babyclub - yes your employers were right - you were earning under the lower earnings limit

Thanks for all for your responses - very helpful. I'm currently temping so have just spoken to the agency I'm with and they're sending me the SMP1 today so will get it sent off by the end of the week.