Mat allowance - qualifying and timings

[MrsPCR]

I left my job the month before I found out I was pregnant. Currently I will have worked for 23 of the 66 weeks before EDD so am 3 weeks short of qualifying.

I am a teacher, so if I do 3 days supply across three weeks, I'll have earnt enough for the extra three weeks; however supply is zero hours/self-employed. Would this qualify me for MA?

I assume I need to do this when I'm about 24 weeks pregnant as I was understanding you had to apply within about a month of last working?

Thanks for any advice on how I can get those 3 weeks to qualify!

You have to have earnt a minimum of £175 a week in the 26 weeks, but as an average, to qualify for the full entitlement. Wouldn't you be paid through an agency for supply work? That's not self employed. It makes no difference tho, you just have to have worked the 26 weeks and earnt and average of over £175 a week for those 26 weeks.

You can ask the job centre to calculate it for you to make sure you qualify but you'll probably have to stamp your feet a bit as they don't like to calculate anything until your actually ready to claim (which defeats the purpose!). I'm in the same boat as you and that's what I did.

I got MA and am self employed so that part won't be an issue for you.

I got MA and uses a mix of employed and self employed hours and it wasn't a problem (I had a zero hours contract job that didn't qualify me for SMA and also did some freelance self employed work)

@clarebear1983 where have you read that you have to have earns £175 per week to earn full amount ? I can't see this anywhere on gov website... it does mention £130 a week though, and if not you get 90% of what you did earn under that per week?

Have you had your dating/12 week scan yet? My sonographer put me one week less than I knew I actually was so I just sneaked in to the qualifying dates!

@clarebear last time I did supply a few years back, they were funny about pay but that was back when the offshore pay thing was in the news. I made them pay me PAYE as I was only doing it do for a month between jobs.

@joinourclub scan is in 2 weeks but I was temping and have 28 day cycles so it will be accurate. Last time they put me as a day put because it kept flipping between 12 and 11+6. I'm definitely a few weeks short at the moment!

But it looks like my plan of doing a month's supply should work! Thanks ladies.

The job centre told me about the £175 a week when I called and asked them to advise. That is to qualify for the £140 or so a week, I.e. The full entitlement.

It may have something to do with self employment then because none golf the websites mention that amount, and I was titled different