Self employed maternity allowance

[Lou98]

Hi, I was looking for some advice, not sure if this is the right place to post or not though.

I am currently 5+2 weeks pregnant so still early days! I recently became self employed (dog groomer) and have been looking at the self employed maternity allowance through the gov website.

To qualify you need to have paid enough NI in at least 13 weeks of the 66 weeks before your due date. I paid national insurance monthly while employed until July this year.
As I have only recently became self employed I have never done a tax return and I am not sure how it works with being the first year in business if I do one in April or not? (Sole trader) If not, is there a way that I can pay National Insurance early to qualify?

Any advice would be appreciated or anyone in a similar boat!

Thanks 😁

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 (£151.20 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