Maternity allowance and NI 2

[Ellie667]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to ask a quick question about maternity allowance. I applied for it around mid october and 4 weeks later received a letter saying that im eligible for the £27 a week rate, I was told that I would also receive a letter after that from HMRC requesting to pay 13 weeks of NI 2 to qualify for the full rate, and its been almost 3 weeks since receiving the first letter saying that Im eligible for £27 a week. How long does it take to get the second letter requesting the additional payment?

Im getting worried as in 2 weeks I will be starting maternity leave and calling hmrc and maternity helpline was useless and I want to know when i will get the letter be able to get the full rate 😫😫😫

Im self employed so maybe its different for me, but im pretty sure you can sign in to gov gateway online and see how many NIcs you’ve made and any missing years, and you can pay online.

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

I had missing years from being a student for a longish time and opted to pay them once I was working more. I think the sooner you pay them the less you pay too. Or maybe it’s about how much I earned those years.

Unfortunately not, when you sign in you can only pay I believe Ni 1 or 3 but not 2

This happened to me 3yrs ago when I applied for maternity allowance. They take time to update your rate apparently. Apparently they will do it 🙄You need to call the goverment department for work and pensions they are the ones that sorted it for me, ask to speak to someone about maternity allowanc. I think you need to contact them within a certain time frame of receiving the letter to be able to dispute it.... Just pesevere with calling, you'll get through eventually. It's a pain I know and I'm dreading doing it all again for my second.