Smp when self employed help ?

[KHall84]

Am self employed since may 2019 so not long but am due baby in April 2020 so am wanting to apply for smp however have I been self employed long enough? I havent done a tax return yet as this ismt due to be done until April so I havent yet paid tax an national insurance which actually going on earning am not sure I will of earned enough to have to pay this, also I get universal credits so would I be entitled to smp at the £139 a week ? Thanks

Self employed people aren't eligible for smp. You should look into maternity allowance.

Is it not Maternity Allowance that you would need to claim? You would need to make enough Class 2 NI contributions to qualify.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

You mean maternity allowance, you can plays class 2 NI early but as your UC will be reduced pound for pound unlike tax credits when the first £100 is ignored there isn’t much point.

If you are Self employed your actual earnings are irrelevant for MA.

Sorry yes I did mean maternity allowance, as am a start up business my uc only reduces if I earn over £550 profit after paying all expense out which I dont at the moment, i know i have to of paid type 2 national i insurance so i can just pay this early to get MA ? As I plan on taking 12 months off I know I dont get it for the full 12 months but every little helps x

From the link I posted:

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.

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.

Where you employed with a company at anytime before may 2019. As the relevant period for maternity allowance is Jan 19 til march 20 so u could use 13 weeks payslips from then to apply for it

@nicciw87 no I wasnt last time I was employed was Jan 18 as I didnt really need to work as such as I was paid off to leave my last company due to them bullying so I took 12months off before going self employed it just so confusing on applying and doing tax and national insurance x

They'll send you a letter when you apply for MA giving you the option to pay your NI contributions to get the higher amount. It's pretty straightforward. Just get it done as soon as you're able as they have big backlogs.