Maternity allowance, when will they pay me?

[Mrshand123]

so i got my reply a few weeks ago, im entitled to £145 a week. i left work on 11th but as holiday for two weeks. so my leave officially starts on Friday, i sent off my reply today first class and put down my day i want it to start from which is Friday 25th, will i get paid then or is it going to be ages still?

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance

You can claim Maternity Allowance as soon as you’ve been pregnant for 26 weeks. Payments can start 11 weeks before your baby is due

Who knows! I applied in November of last year and asked for it to start in February. They sent me the letter in response in early January and back dated the MA payments to the day my application was received. God only knows why! But it annoyed me as I really wanted the security of that money actually coming through when I was on mat leave and not before. In my experience (been on MA twice), the response usually comes in 6 weeks but it’s a bit of a crap shoot when the payments actually come through.

Good question.
I applied in plenty of time, sent off the form when I’d finished work and 3 weeks later, I’m still waiting for any money to come into my account.
I’ve saved some money for maternity leave but didn’t want to dip into that until baby’s due date.
I’m getting quite desperate with regards to needing the money.