Maternity allowance!! Anyone recently applied?

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I got a text message acknowledging receipt of my application and it says I should hear back about their decision within 8 weeks!! Is this the standard message they send and has anyone else who has applied in the last month or so willing to let me know how long they were waiting??

Thanks in advance [signed-(going to be) very poor, (currently) very pregnant and very emotional!]

Yep - I applied and got the text on 3rd July and spoke to them on phone yesterday as I was originally told 6 weeks and then 8! Just bear in mind bank holidays apparently don’t count as part of that 8 weeks. I was told to call back if I haven’t heard anything by the end of today, going by what I’ve heard I think I’ll be waiting a bit longer. When did you say you wanted your payments to start on your form? They should backdate the payments from then when you eventually get it.

@afternoontwee Oh my goodness, that's ages!! They must be so busy at the moment then?! I had serious delays in getting my SMP1 from my employers despite putting mat leave forms in early and I was starting payments from the first week of September. I guess at least the payments will be backdated but all the financial stress of pregnancy has been so draining :( xx

Sent form mid June. They recieved 3rd July.

Phoned week before last was told working on end June claims

Phoned last week and was told working on mid June claims

They appear to have entered a time warp

@IVEgottheDECAF Wow, that's impressive!! I'm impressed also by your perseverance at managing to get through to them as I have never ever managed to get through the endless queues!

I am debating phoning again today / tomorrow! Baby is due next week

I applied for MA a few months ago. They took the amount of time they said - 8 weeks for me too. To the exact day!

@IVEgottheDECAF Yes, definitely try and phone to see if it gives them a nudge!
@CarrieBlu Ah well, it's good to know in a way as I think we will just need to have a very cheap couple of months ahead of us!

I do think its awful how long it takes it must put some people in really hard situations

My baby is due beginning of April. When do I need to send my form in to claim MA from beginning of March? Also when do you get your maternity certificate that they say you have to send to them?

@IVEgotthedecaf I totally agree, being pregnant is hard enough without all the stress they cause people financially. I am only able to afford 14 weeks off work and I just want to enjoy time with my baby and be as relaxed as possible, not having my head melted by financial worries!!

@abbs1 you can claim from when you're 26 weeks pregnant and payments can start as early as 11 weeks before the baby is due

xxx

@abbs1 you should get mat b1 form from your midwife about 21 weeks, depends on when your appt is but they can't give it before 20 xx

@Infb oh thank you so much. I have my next midwife appointment when I'm 16 weeks so I'm sure I will get another appointment after that for when I'm 20 weeks. Any ideas what the 16 weeks one is for?

@abbs1 They will book you in for next at the 16 week appointment, from my experience they generally book them one at a time :) Have you got a separate scan appointment aside from the 16 week? It's possibly bloods xxx

@Infb yes I've got scan at 12 weeks coming up in a few weeks 🙂

@abbs1 So exciting! :D Definitely get your MA form in as early as possible though, if you're employed you'll need SMP1 from each employer to say they can't pay you SMP xx

@Infb it says in the form to send the original MAT certificate but how do you know you're gonna get it back ok?

@abbs1 I sent them a self addressed signed for envelope with my form and asked them to send it back in that. But I got my payslips back and they'd sent them signed for anyway so maybe they would do that with the mat b1 too xx

Sent my form off at the beginning of July and got a message on 3rd saying it would take 6 weeks. Still waiting.

A range earlier today and they started by telling me they have 8 weeks to process, then backtracked when they realised thats already passed. Apparently they are working on claims from the end of June and will get to mine in the next couple of weeks. Not sure if I believe them, but we will see.

The guy did check the form and said that they had everything they needed, so hopefully the won't be any more delays once they do process it.

Honestly its really crap i might try complaining when i phone up

I applied over six weeks ago they said they would only take that long to hear back, so I phoned up and he said they're not due to review my claim for another two weeks which is annoying as I needed it to start before then. I think they must just be very busy.

Still no text from them today, so I’ll be calling up tomorrow. baby is due in 2 days so I’m hoping they’ll have an answer for me on how long the delay is!

Hope we get some good news soon ladies!!

I rang before. I got a bit cross.

They said they are aiming to look at claims from 3rd July by the end of next week then its up to 10 working days for payment. So basically 3 weeks until any money.

My baby is due next week afternoon!

@IvegottheDECAF it’s the constant backtracking that’s getting on my nerves! Wish they would have just said there’s more than an 8 week backlog. If I hear any more I’ll report back, we should both get the money at the same time as we got the text the same day.

I feel like they have one person sat looking at each individual claim ...