Maternity allowance - self employed

[tootsieglitterballs]

I'm in the process of applying for maternity allowance as I'll be taking a break from my business for at least 3 months when baby comes.

I've filed my tax return for 2016/2017 and paid class 2 national insurance contributions for the 2016/2017 tax year (even though based on my first years profit I didn't need to)

In experience, will I need to make any further NI contributions to receive the full amount of MA? It's not an issue if I do need to, but I'd just like to budget it for it, just in case.

For the MA amount, it's my understanding that if I'm fully paid up with my NI contributions for the 'test period' I would be entitled to the full amount I.e £139 (I think it is) per week - have I understood this correctly?

Thanks for any help / advice / guidance!

@purplefig just so you're aware even if your accounts are up to date With HMRC - you'll still have to 'prepay' some of your NI bill. Your full bill payment won't be due with HMRC until January 31st which will be too late in the eyes of DWP.

When you apply the DWP get in touch with HMRC and they'll let you know what to pay.

It will only be 13 weeks of £2.95 though as it's based on fixed rate class II NI so it's hardly anything you'll need to pay.

@coral13 urghhh I see. That's good to know - thanks!!

@purplefig also sorry just so you know.... You have to wait for HMRC to write to you to tell you what/how to pay as it needs to be tied to your maternity allowance claim.

If you or your accountant try to make an advance payment without this then it won't be linked to your claim and won't count.

(it's a really stupid system)

@coral13 aghrrr that sounds confusing! So what's the process:

1. Get books up-to-date as poss

2.. Contact HMRC and tell them you'd like to apply and ask how much advance payment you owe

1. Get letter telling how much you owe
2. Pay
3. Then apply

@purplefig

No - This is how to do it:

1. Get your books up to date. Not sure if it actually makes that much diff but if you can do might as well.... (I did and might as well do it before baby arrives haha).

1. APPLY. You apply with DWP (Department for Work & Pensions) and NOT HMRC as it's not HMRC who pay you maternity allowance - it's DWP. You can download the form from the government website that I linked from. It's a REALLY simple form - but there are also help pages on the same Gov link. DWP basically don't care about how much you earn from being self employed - they just care that you are self employed and willing to pay the minimum NI required.

1. DWP will contact HMRC on your behalf and then HMRC will write to you to tell you how much you need to pay and what reference to use.

1. All sorted! :)

Don't panic if inbetween you get a letter from DWP saying you're only getting £27 a week - this is what you get if you don't make your NI payment to HMRC.

It can take them 6 weeks to sort everything. But don't panic. If it does overrun when you wanted to start maternity leave, they will backdate it for you.

@purplefig this is the link to the form.

Even if you can't apply yet, I'd look at it so you see how simple it is.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/how-to-claim

@coral13 thanks - you're an absolute star! That doesn't sound too bad. So I don't really need to involve my accountant at all by the looks of things.

hi there,

I hope someone can help me here. My girlfriend and I expecting a baby mid march next year.

My girlfriend have been unemployed since July last year but now started to do some freelance work as interior designer and look like she will be getting more project moving forward.

She is now in process of setting up sole trader (self employed) businesses to make things official and pay taxes, etc.

Question is: what she need to do in order to make sure she will get full Maternity Allowance (MA) when baby is born. I think is now at £151.20 per week? What are the criteria? shall she pay national insurance payments earlier?
I see that she will have to pay full class 2 national insurance for at least 13 weeks before baby is due. Is that correct ?

any help/advice will much appreciated

Jan

@Yanecek the government website might help you out here www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance

The criteria is that she earns £30 per week in 13 of the 66 weeks before baby due and you need to be self employed for at least 26 weeks.

I’m not sure on the applying for maternity allowance in your gf’s case as with mine I had been self employed for a few years so they could see my earnings from my previous years. To give you an idea on getting the full amount though, I received a letter back saying I qualified for £27pw but hrmc would contact me about how much voluntary NI payments I would need to pay to get the 151pw. In the end I didn’t need to pay anything as my April 2019 to April 20 tax return had been completed and I’d prepaid NI due next Jan so that payment must have qualified me for the full 151pw - my NI bill wasn’t much more than one week of maternity allowance so it’s definitely worth making the voluntary contributions to get the full amount.

If I hadn’t paid enough I was told hrmc would just send you a bill, you paid it to them and the maternity allowance dept would qualify you for the full amount.

Good luck and congratulations on the baby 🍾❤️