Maternity Allowance or work maternity pay?

[NoSleepMum7]

So I am technically self employed as well as part time employed. I run a small business and then work two days a week (6hours per day, so 12 hours a week, sometimes less if no work to do).
I’ve been self employed for several years now, and will have been part time employed for around one year when my baby is due.

I can technically claim my works maternity pay according to them, but I will be getting 90% of my average pay for half of my maternity, then 50% for the other half or something similar to this. However I make minimum wage, so I make around £138 a week currently, then this will be less with 90% and even less with 50%.

as I’m still classed as self employed too, am I able to decide whether to claim maternity allowance or my employers maternity pay? Or am I only entitled to employers pay and maternity allowance isn’t an option now?

If you’re entitled to maternity pay, you can’t claim maternity allowance, I don’t believe. Or at least that’s what HMRC and two accountants told me!

Thank you! I’ve been very confused by it all. I claimed maternity allowance for my first baby as I wasn’t employed then, just self employed so wondered what this time would be. Thanks so much!

To qualify for mat allowance you must not be eligible for statutory maternity pay. You can't claim both at the same time.

thank you. I wasn’t hoping to claim both as I know that’s not possible, I just wondered whether I had the option of choosing one or the other as I am self employed too. Thanks for your help!

Hi @NoSleepMum7

I started to fill in the form for MA but there’s a specific question that says if you are employed you have to provide a certain form from your employer confirming why you are not eligible for SMP.
So I would have thought it unlikely you could choose

No unfortunately not, if you're eligible for SMP you have to choose that. Being eligible for SMP means you're ineligible for MA. I should have said "you also can't claim both at the same time" so as to not insinuate you were going to, but it's a common follow up question :)

Hypothetically, what would be the case if I quit my job some time before my due date?

You are still eligible for SMP if you are in employment 15 weeks before your Expected Due Date (double check this, it was something like this), so it would depend when you left. If you left after this date your employer would still have to pay you SMP even though you’d left (I did this and started a new job before going on maternity leave but my old employer paid me SMP).

You can only claim MA if you don't qualify for SMP. You can do self employed work while on maternity leave and getting SMP if you wanted top up the money you get. (This wouldn't be true if you were getting MA as you'd be limited to 10 KIT days)

I think you might get slightly more than you think. This is statutory maternity pay:-

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is paid for up to 39 weeks. You get:

• 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks
• £184.03 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks

So you would get 90% of your pay for the first 39 weeks because that is lower than the £184.03.