Maternity Allowance if Self-employed

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Does anyone know about maternity allowance if you're self-employed and has anyone been through the process? How do you do it and how much do you get and for how long? Obviously I can't apply for stautory maternity pay from my employer...

Hi - I wonder if anyone has some good advice. I'm currently claiming MA successfully, but have managed to secure a little freelance work I really don't want to turn down, but I was wondering if hypothetically of course, anyone had 'come across' these scenarios:

Whether to set up a Ltd Co and invoice through that, then not actually 'pay' myself until my MA is finished.

Or whether to register as Self Employed and to use the 10 KIT days to invoice for 1 'day' a month until the MA finishes. Surely if you are freelance and working from home then who knows how much time you actually spend on something?

My other option is to work for free and invoice the whole whack when my MA is finished - is this the most sensible?

Also, if you only send a self assessment form in at the end of the year, then who's to say when the money actually got paid?

If anyone has any experience with this, then please share!

Thank you

(Sorry I can't be of help to anyone else YET, but this is a really useful thread!)

Hi, I just filled in my form today and then saw this talk...
My understanding is:

• earnings are irrelevant
• you have to work for some hours a week before maternity leave
• have to be officially registered as self-employed
• have paid the national insurance contribution
• not to have savings above £16k

What you have to do:

• Get the maternity certificate from you midwife (you need to send original).
• Call the right job centre (08456088610 for London, otherwise I am sure they will give you right one). Answer tons of questions (plan 1hr for the call)
• If you qualify they will send you a relatively simple form to fill in.

I just send mine today. The process was quite simple and the person on the line very nice.

My experience has been the same so far, in that being registered as self-employed and paying NI for at least 13 weeks before the due date is all the information you need to provide in order to claim MA.

Here's what I am wondering though: while I do not have a small earnings exemption certificate (I choose to pay NI contributions), I do earn under the taxable threshold since I only do the odd bit of contract work for a former employer.

I've applied for MA and been sent the form to confirm I shall receive it, but what happens when I fill out my tax return later this year? Will someone at HMRC decide that actually I wasn't entitled to MA since my earnings were low, and then send me a huge bill asking me to pay it all back???

So long as you've been paying NI contributions for 13 weeks AND you haven't held the small earnings exception certificate, it doesn't matter how little you earn - you'll be fine! They have no interest in earnings in this situation.

I didn't even know about this (wasn't self-employed last time) it reassures me for when we have next DC, not quite so disastrous financially!

Hello!

I have just come across this thread after many hours researching and reading up all about being self employed and maternity allowance as I'm self employed and are starting to think about babies, but want to check and be prepared (as much as can be!)... So far my hubby and I have gathered the following points:

1. As long as you have been paying class 2 NI for 13 weeks in the 66 week test period, then you will receive the full MA alowance for up to 39 weeks
2. You don't have to provide proof of earnings as they take it that you are earning the minimum due to paying the class 2 NI
3. You are allowed 10 KIT days in the 39 week period of MA being paid

Are these correct? The thing we are totally confused about is with regard to the KIT days...We are really confused about what they mean to a self-employed woman! I run a business where i don't make any turnover unless i win client business (also a lot of that turnover stays in the business), so for example i may respond to an enquiry, have a consultation and write a proposal for potential client business, all of which will take up to 2 of my KIT days, they then decide to go ahead and book my services and pay me a deposit. I then may work a few KIT days for this client, but the majority of the work may not happen until after the 39 week MA period (business can have long lead times).

At the same time I will have existing clients from before MA started, so any work i do on this, even if no money is being paid to me as it will have already been paid prior to MA, will be classed as KIT days? How is all of this proven? The deposits I get paid can be fairly substantial, so are these payments taken into account when i do my tax return and then questioned? Is it doing the work or receiving the money that is the problem?

It is quite unclear and very confusing about how we can survive as small businesses...if i left my business for 9 months it wouldn't survive, i would have to start all over again with market presence and exposure, but by the same token if i just kept the business ticking along doing more than the allowed 10 KIT days i still may not get any clients and earn no money (business is quite irratic), but yet foreit the MA payments...? So would even the odd email, responding to requests for press, blogging etc in order to keep market pressence be classed as part of KIT days even though no direct earnings come from that? CONFUSED! :(

Sorry for the complete waffle! And thank you so much for any thoughts and help!

Two years later and this is still the only helpful and relevant thread I have found online for self employed women going on maternity leave.
The government are fooling themselves if they think they support enterprise and entrepreneurial women in the UK.

After much searching/panicing and (yes I'm hormonal) crying, I discovered that I dont even have to give details of earnings that as long as I was paying my NI Contributions them that is that I get the full maternity pay. But that is not an easy or obvious thing to learn.

I know this thread is dead, but it still helped me with what to do with ongoing bits of admin or a quicky freelance one off here and there.

I just wanted to say thanks to you women above, you have been more help than any advice service or gov website I have been scrutinising over the past months!!!

its 2014 the only thing that has improved is the pay has gone up slightly.

Hope you all survived maternity and being self employed. ANy updates on how you got on if you get an alert to this message would be amazing.

For example, did any earnings for past work become an issue at the end of year tax return? Did you all have to go back to work early to keep your business alive??

Thanks a mill
Lou xx

Coincidentally I've just applied for MA for DC4 - I was one of the original posters here (sparklies) who was having massive hassles for DC3 back in 2011! This time out all my NI contributions are up to date, no small earnings exemption, so in theory it should be straightforward. However my week 26 was just before Christmas and I sent off my forms then, I'm nearly 30 weeks now and I rang them up earlier in the week and they told me it would be another three weeks until they even looked at it let alone started paying anything. They were supposed to pay from last Sunday when I was 29 weeks They'll backdate it eventually but what if I was relying on that money to get by, having no other income in the meantime? A shambles.

Anyway, yes, I had no issues at all last time once I'd sorted out the fiasco over the small earnings certificate and had my 13 weeks of NI contributions in non SEC time. All went to plan.

I didn't return to work early but to be fair it was not a full time business, more part time overall once the hours are averaged out. The nature of the business (big projects here and there then nothing for a while) meant there was no ongoing admin or steady pay etc during my maternity leave. The MA certainly meant I did not have to rush back to work. I don't recall any issues with end of year tax stuff.

Yes, you don't need to give earnings details in your situation (and mine) as you've surmised.. but it is extremely difficult to work that out from the information they give you. Even their own calculator suggests differently, and the form is too vague. Goodness help anyone who isn't that good with forms etc which is going to be a sizeable percentage of those applying.

Good luck!!

So good to hear from you!
Glad everything worked out well for you, when i read your earlier post i was gutted for you and thought how easy it would have been for me to have found myself in that predicament, but thankfully no one told m e about small earnings! lol

I just submitted mine after Christmas and received a lettter to say they have received it and will be in touch if they need any further info.

I wondered how do we actually start our maternity? I am a little on the stuck side for projects myself i had one project fall through in December and have only two small projects Jan - Feb. I'm wondering am i best just going on maternity instead. But you've alerted me to the fact I could very well be waiting a long time anyway for the payment to begin. I might just phone them to see what the status is.

Would be perfect if my client were in a position to allow me to invoice early for the project I need to finish up. Otherwise I'm gonna have to hand it over. :-/

We are very similar in due dates, another coincidence!!! lol I'm due 19th March! Its so good to hear someone else taking maternity at this stage or thinking about it even!!

good luck!!! :-)

Heh, I've had no letter from mine and I posted it 17th December! When I called earlier in the week they claim to have received it 30th December (really?!!) and I have to allow them 14 working days from then to deal with it. Which takes us up to nearly the end of January. Given I did everything by the book as early as possible I am not impressed!

My due date is 23rd March which is a Sunday, so I can't work out if we're technically the same week as far as they're concerned!

It is really really ambiguous as to when you start your MA if you're still working. It seems they assume that most people are only claiming because they've left their employer, rather than being self employed. I put in the notes bit that I wanted to start week 29 (the earliest) as there seemed to be nowhere else to say it. I have SPD and I'm on crutches now, and as most of my work is kneeling on floors photographing newborns, I haven't worked since November anyway as I physically couldn't do it!

I've been paid for the last job I did, but I am not sure at all what would happen if I had been paid after week 29 or couldn't invoice until then. It's so complicated and the information so unhelpful and vague.`

this could be the first time the Northern Ireland is proving to be a more beneficial system to live under, if they don't mess up this application. I'll let you know.

I really hope this all works out for you!! And your pay comes through ASAP!!! Good luck with the baby too. God love you I don't know how you are doing crutches and a bump!!!

GO MAMA!!! :-)

Thank you and good luck to you too! It's certainly been "interesting" - hard enough staying on top of life in general so I hope I don't have another MA drama to deal with this time around too! It was a huge stress last time, all because they don't make the documentation very clear.

I've been self employed for 7 years, NI contributions up to date, no small earnings exemptions etc. I must have been really lucky as it was very straightforward for me. I applied at 26 weeks, and got a form back which I had to send off when I actually finished work. This was on 20th Dec (33 weeks) so I rang the MA office to ask how much of a delay there would be in getting a payment with Christmas and New Year etc. The woman on the phone said not to bother sending the form in and she would take my details about my last day of work over the phone and email them straight away to the relevant person. I received my first payment on 7th Jan.

I don't think you are allowed to claim MA and work at the same time, you can only claim it from the day you start maternity leave, as far as I understand it. If you return to work earlier than the 39 weeks the MA is paid for, you only get a proportion, not the full amount. However, you are entitled to 10 "back to work days" whilst still claiming the full amount. HTH

I see how it's a bit more confusing in your case Crispy, but I would think that voices paid after the start of your Mat leave would not be an issue.

Reviving this zombie thread as, just like the previous posters, this is the most helpful thing I've found relation to MA and being self employed.

I'm a self employed dog walker but I have three employees, and will be hiring one or two more to cover for me when I go on mat leave. However whilst I won't be physically working (as in walking dogs), I will have to do general admin and HR things for an hour or so each month in order to keep payroll running and the business ticking over.

I will obviously also receive income from the business during my mat leave, as my employees are still working and generating revenue. Did anyone ever get an answer as to HOW they know if you're working - i.e. if it's judged on income received during your MA period? Because if so I am stuffed! As even if I don't lift a finger I have my employees bringing in income, and unless I fire them I won't get MA if that's how it works?

Anyone with more experience or info please post and fill me in as I'm planning TTC next yr but want to know exactly what my financial situation will be beforehand.