Have had to take mat leave early - confused!!

[Doublebubblebubble]

I've posted this over in money matters too - but I figured I'd get more traffic here!!
Please help I'm so confused.

I was meant to start my mat leave 5/10/15

My due date is 4/10/15 (I just have a sit down job so felt that it wasn't necessary to leave earlier)

From the 28/9/15 - 4/10/15 I was going to use A/l

my last "shift" at work was going to be (I was also meant to work today and tomorrow) 23/9/15 with 2 days A/l that week

Anyway... Had a bit of drama on the 19/9/15 (got all excited thinking that baby was coming early - hes still inside me!!!)
So I decided that I would take my mat leave a bit earlier than expected (16 days altogether.

when I was renewing (in july) my tax credits I mentioned that I would be going on mat leave soon ish and they said to get in contact closer to the due date (so today basically).

Do I need to get anything from my work to send to them along with my matb1 form to explain...

Could I use my last week of holiday to "pay" for my last 4 days that I didn't work (19, 21,22,23??) And would this affect when they consider my mat leave has started even though orally I said it was the 19th... confused

What else do I need to do?

My SMP is going to be 90% of my pay...

Any other advice welcome - I'm really confused!!!!!

I don't think, for tax credits purposes, it matters that you're on mat leave, since you're still considered an employee. You'll still be taxed/NI-ed as an employee. All they'll want to know is your projected income for this tax year.

E.g. check your YTD figure from your last pay slip, work out how much per month 90% of your usual income is, add them together to see how much you're likely to earn this year. (Check the Tax Credits website, as I'm sure there's an allowance about £100 a week IRC that you can earn from SMP that you don't have to declare).

You're probably better off asking your employer what they will do about paying you what AL they owe you if you're not planning to go back to work before your holidays renew again (some employers will allow you to carry a certain amount over to the next tax year, others will pay you what they owe you but that you physically can't take).

It's all very confusing this SMP/TC stuff!