Maternity Allowance

[Newmumatlast]

Self employed people who have had maternity allowance - I've had mine come through assessed at £27 a week (is it even worth it?!) apparently due to the level of national insurance contributions. I pay these but obviously as I'm self employed I pay them in my tax return after the fact. Am I right that this therefore means I haven't paid 2018/19 class 2 yet as I'd usually pay this when the tax return is submitted end of this year and so I'd need to pay those contributions in advance now to get the full maternity allowance and then get my accountants to adjust my tax return so it shows I have already paid them?

Have HMRC not sent a letter about it as I found this on the .Gov website:

If you’re self-employed

To get the full amount of Maternity Allowance, you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby’s due.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will check if you’ve paid enough when youmake your claim. They’ll write to you if you have not.

If you have not paid enough Class 2 National Insurance to get the full rate (£148.68 a week), you’ll get £27 a week for 39 weeks. You still need to meet all the other eligibility criteria to get this amount.

You may be able to get the full rate by making early National Insurance payments. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will send you a letter to tell you how

This part is important too:

You’ll need to pay using the reference number in the letter to get the full rate, even if you’ve recently made a payment through Self Assessment.

I’m no too self employed but I do have a friend who is and we have discussed may allowance as we’ve both applied for it. She has said to me that she’s expecting a letter saying exactly as you have above and it’ll mean having to pay NI in advance to get the full amount - she did the same with her last child. I know it’s not exact as it’s not me who is the SE one, but until someone comes along who can confirm, this might give you a bit of hope!

Yes, I got a second letter later asking for the amount of N2, it gave me a bank account and reference number to make the payment. I then got the full amount, it took a couple of weeks

It’s £38.90 read your maternity letter it will say hmrc will send you an invite to pay within ten working days.

I got my letter today and need to pay NI (38.90) and then will get the full amount. If you haven’t got one I would call them up and check it out. I spoke to a couple of people about this on the phone and they both said the same. Once you’ve paid that amount for NI you’ll be eligible for the full allowance.

Thank you!