Can anyone help me with Maternity Allowance claim form?

[CoffeeChocolateWine]

Hi there, I'm 29 weeks pregnant with DC3, but this will be my first time claiming for maternity allowance as I am self-employed whereas I was previously employed for my other two pregnancies.

I printed off the huge form expecting it to be quite an ordeal to fill in, but as far as I can see the bits that apply to me and my situation are very short. The thing that I'm confused about is that nowhere on the form do they ask for details about my self-employed earnings, so I'm wondering how they are going to calculate my entitlement?

I thought maybe they contact HMRC but as my test period is from 26/02/17 to 02/06/2018 and I pay tax via self assessment each year, HMRC currently only have my earnings records up to April 2017. Does this mean that I will also have to file a tax return with my earnings for the remainder of the test period before they can calculate my entitlement?

Sorry if the above is a bit garbled, but does anyone know?

TIA.

Think you should be ok. I'm self employed aswell and my last tax return fell few weeks short. I'd say if they need more info they will contact you. I just had a call last week as id missed a tick box. She asked me couple other things while she had me on phone then advised she had already instructed HMRC to bill me for vol ni payments to make me up to full award.
Send it on in and see what happens.

Have you paid your NI?

Thanks. My tax records held by HMRC only go up to April last year so only dip about 5 weeks into my test period. The remainder of my test period (ie. from April last year onwards) I wouldn't usually file until Jan next year...I know I can file it after April but it doesn't give me much time to file my tax return and then file the maternity allowance claim form as I've heard there can be delays of a few weeks with MA claims.

But perhaps I will just send it off now and see what they say about it. Thank you.

Regarding National Insurance, I don't pay it via regular installments...I usually get a statement from HMRC halfway through the year to pay my NI in a chunk. So I tend to make a payment in July and then the remaining payment in January when I file my tax return. On the MA form it says I will be given the option to pay what I owe in NI to bring it up to date though.

Btw, I would like my MA payments to begin at the beginning of June which is why I said previously that it doesn't give me much time to file that tax return and then put in the claim for MA.

I still need to do mine! I’m just totally unsure as to when I’m going to have to properly stop working. I haven’t even looked at it yet to be honest! I’m rubbish at forms.

I've heard a lot that there are often delays with processing these forms so don't leave it too long. I'm not usually that organised with things like this but I can't risk things not being in place when I do stop work!

I need to do this as am 27+3. I don't want to take maternity leave until the beginning of June at the earliest. Another self employed pregnant lady I know just applied for MA and said it took about three weeks.