Am i eligible for ANYTHING!???!!

[KateQPR]

I'm so confused by what maternity benefits or allowances i may be due. Anyone an expert on this? I've been staring at the government web site and totally confused by it all...

My due date is 8th March, and was working up until the end of Aug (not been working since unfortunately due to bed rest etc) and i THOUGHT i may be eligible for something if i'd worked up to 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before baby is due. But i've just looked at the form online and it seems to conflict with their own info and says the 'test period' for me starts in November .

I have no brain power and am stumped. Anyone have any advice, or can recommend a web site that may help?

cheers

Kate

Your test period would be 02/12/2007-08/03/2009, I think you have misread the table. If you have worked 26 weeks in that time (not necessarily consecutive) then you can submit your best 13 weeks of payslips with the MA form, and they will give you 39 weeks of Maternity Allowance at either £117.80 or 90% of pay if your average weekly earnings were less than this.

Because you are not working now, you have no choice but to start the MA payments at 29 weeks of pregnancy, which for you was 21/12/08, so you need to claim As soon as possible, really. In any case, if you delay your claim more than 3 months after it should have started, you will lose money.

thank you Lou. That's brilliant. I did misread it (got the years wrong) so will def go and get the form tomorrow and claim.

thanks again!

No problem. Just remember to put your best 13 weeks payslips in there (not necessarily consecutive) so if you did any overtime, had a bonus, back pay or the like, make sure that payslip is one of the ones you use. The form tells you to do that anyway.

As an example, in the beginning of my test period for DD2, I was working 30 hours per week. I then dropped to 5 hours per week for the majority of my test period. When I applied for MA, I used the payslips from the beginning of my test period to claim Maternity allowance. The result was that I got the full £117.80 Ma, when my weekly earnings before mat leave started were only £50 per week.