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How do you get a MAT1B form if you live abroad?

9 replies

AnonymousXXIX · 12/02/2024 15:21

Hi,

I am employed in the UK (and pay taxes in the UK) but live abroad and am seeing my GP abroad... but my employer insists on a UK MATB1 form for my maternity pay application. Nothing else will do. Has anyone else had this issue?

Is it possible to privately pay a UK clinic/GP to do my MATB1 form? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on who I can contact? Or do you reckon I would have any luck ringing my old UK GP to ask for assistance? (Somehow I doubt that they would want to/be able to help.)

I can obviously provide all the required information through my actual doctor, they have said they are able to provide an official letter etc. If I had to go to the UK to see someone... I can't until I am about 26 weeks pregnant, which is leaving it a little late!

Err, help!

OP posts:

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Lougle · 12/02/2024 15:40

Your employer is wrong. The Gov.uk site states that a letter from your doctor is sufficient.

"You need to give your employer proof of the pregnancy to get SMP. You do not need it for maternity leave.

Within 21 days of your SMP start date (or as soon as possible if the baby’s born early) give your employer either:

a letter from your doctor or midwife
your MATB1 certificate - doctors and midwives will give you this no more than 20 weeks before the due date."

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/how-to-claim

Maternity pay and leave

Your Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Leave - what you get, how to claim, maternity rights and extra help

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/how-to-claim

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AnonymousXXIX · 12/02/2024 15:46

Yeah I know they are wrong, but they are still refusing to accept anything else. I definitely do not want to get myself into an argument with HR, that would not work out in my favour, so the best solution is to just find a way to get my hands on one of these forms.

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OhhhhhhhhBiscuits · 12/02/2024 15:57

It is highly unlikely you will get a MAT form without being under nhs/private care in the UK. They will need to have examined you to confirm the pregnancy and gestation. The only option would be for you to fly here and sign up to your old GP if they allow it. Depends how long you have lived abroad for.

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mitogoshi · 12/02/2024 16:11

Whether you can claim smp depends on where you live, in the EU you can play a few other places as long as they are paying ni for you. But not all countries. If you aren't eligible you don't needs a mat 1b

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Nearlythere80 · 12/02/2024 17:19

You should try a private GP, online, it certainly wouldn't be an NHS service to provide a non-NHS patient for such a form

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Papaoso1993 · 23/03/2024 22:39

My wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of september. I'm english, I live and work in England and my wife is Peruvian and at the moment she is in Peru. How can I get a Matb1 form for my paternity leave without her being in England? We plan for the baby to be born in Peru. I know that one option is for her to come to here and have hospital visits here and get the form from a midwife but timing and money is a bit of an issue at the moment as we only found out that she is pregnant the day after our wedding. If timing was on our side, she would have her spouse visa and be living in England by now so it would be straight forward.