Maternity allowance and going abroad

[gunwalloe]

We would like to go away during my maternity leave I'm on government maternity allowance as I'm self employed. On the info they send you it says that going abroad may effect your allowance so I phoned the help line and got the impression they didn't have a firm policy on how long you could go away for. I asked could I leave the country for a holiday she said yes two weeks is fine to which I replied that we wanted longer she said oh I think 3 weeks will be ok but if it's longer they will presume your permanently moving away. To me this is crazy I wish I could get a visa to move to America there's no way I would get one so how can they presume over 3 weeks means your moving? I can't find any solid information anywhere it's so frustrating!

Has anyone else left the country longer than 3 while on MA?

It's frustrating as when I was employed and had maternity leave I could go wherever I wanted for as long as I wanted.

You can go on holiday while on MA. You aren't allowed to work while you are away though. I wouldn't imagine many people can afford a long holiday while on MA with a new baby which is probably why the helpline lot were a bit clueless.

Unless you started to pay tax abroad (or refuse to pay UK tax as you were out of the country) they would never find out anyway.

As all government agencys are linked I would be afraid that as my passport was scanned out of the country it would be noticed. I would rather go and know everything was ok.

So I just phoned up for the third time and have been told something else now even worse. This advisor said any time spent out of the EU means your allowance gets stopped until you return. I think im going to give up and wait until my MA finishes ive paid my stamp and am entitled to it so want to receive it.

I asked for there policy in writing and it doesn't exist ( go figure )

I really, really doubt that govt agencies are that joined up. I've just emigrated and it's been a massive ballache filling in various forms for hmrc, if only they could just have realised I'd gone abroad by scanning my passport.