Employed & Self-employed - Maternity Allowance/SMP - help!

[sesamesmith]

Anyone any advice on Maternity Pay vs Maternity Allowance?
I am employed by 2 different organisations, only one of which appears to qualify me for Statutory Maternity Pay, but this would give me about 20% less than I would qualify for if I claimed Maternity Allowance from my other Self-Employment. It appears that qualifying for SMP at a low rate means I can't either top it up with Maternity Allowance, or simply claim Maternity Allowance.
Is there any way of claiming Maternity Allowance but not SMP? Or adding the two Employments together to get the full SMP?

Thanks for any answers.

Can you clarify - you say you are 'employed by 2 different organisations', but also talk about your 'other Self-Employment'.

Basically, if both engagements are Employment (ie paid through PAYE) it is bad news, if one is self employment (ie you pay Class 2 NI) it is good news.

Thanks Mranchovy.

I work in 3 different places - Job A & Job B PAYE, plus Job C self-employed. I think the fact that I qualify for SMP at Job A, but not the Job B means that I can't claim Maternity Allowance for Job C, even though this would mean more money, if Jobs A & B didn't exist. It seems so unfair, and goes against EU rules of part-time workers being entitled to the same rights. All I can think of is that I would have to resign from Job A in order to claim MA at Job C, but this would mean I would then lose my job and employment history - surely can't be right! Can I avoid claiming SMP against Job A in order to claim MA through Job C? Is there a way of combining incomes from Job A & B to get the full SMP?

Or alternatively, don't announce my maternity leave dates until it's too late, then they can't pay me SMP and I would have to claim MA. Sounds nuts!

Oh, I see your problem.

I'm sorry to say that you do seem to be caught in a crazy trap - if you are eligible for SMP from any employer you cannot claim MA, it is as simple as that.

I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Get employer A to pay you enough overtime in your last 8 weeks before your ML to bring you up to average weekly earnings of at least £139

1. Get employer A to CUT your hours (if possibloe under your contract) or go off sick for a few days if that is unpaid and it doesn't force the start of your ML - or perhaps take unpaid leave - snow days???) in your last 8 weeks before your ML so that your average weekly earnings fall BELOW the £97 that makes you eligible for SMP. If you have a cooperative employer with a payroll department that know what they are doing this may be the best way forward.

1. Go and see a benefits expert at the CAB, it may be that there is some concessionary payment you can get because you are right about the discriminatory effect of these regulations and also the fact that you have been paying Class 2 NI which entitles you to benefits which you are unfairly prevented from claiming. I seem to remember that similar cases have been tested in court, but I am not a benefits expert.

Good luck, I hope something works for you.

Thanks Mranchovy. After huge amounts of fretting over this, I have been to see my boss at Job B and there's nothing to be done to bring the pay up to £97 per week. I'm gutted. Plus, I haven't paid National Insurance on Job C (self-employed) so would only qualify for £30 per week. So it's not looking good!

I will try to see a CAB next week, but not holding out much hope. At least I get some SMP from Job A. I feel I've been done over by the State, and Job B, who have been paying me a much lower income than comparable employments, but I've put up with it because I thought I'd get SMP. They're also making redundancies, but I won't be considered as they consider that I would probably resign anyway!

If you come across a miracle resolution, I would love to hear it!

Thanks

Pay your self employed stamp in a single cheque.
I paid £178 and got £946 back in 2000. Money well spent.

Did you manage to investigate my 2 Job A suggestions?

@Talkinpeace aren't you clever. Perhaps you would like to donate some of that to the unfortunate OP who through no fault of her own has paid £££ and won't get a penny.

Did you manage to investigate my 2 Job A suggestions?

@Talkinpeace aren't you clever. Perhaps you would like to donate some of that to the unfortunate OP who through no fault of her own has paid £££ and won't get a penny.

?
sorry Anchovy?
There is nothing to stop one paying up Class 2 even if you are below the limit.
That was what I did
pay a years class 2, get maternity allowance

and by the sound of it OP has paid little or no NI so not sure what you mean

the fact that three income streams get around the NI system is a well known anomaly of the NI / pensions / tax system

Oh so sorry - I missed the crucial bit of information in the last post: "I haven't paid National Insurance on Job C (self-employed) so would only qualify for £30 per week."

But surely even if she did pay up now, the MA claim would fail because of the SMP eligibility?

I'm not sure what the rules are now but when I did it, so long as your NI was up together by the date you actually started claiming it was OK.

Does anyone know what happens when you are not self-employed because you're registered as a ltd company?

Are you still entitled to MA? I'm my own boss but I'm not self-employed. SOmething tells me I am entitled; otherwise, what would those business women running their own business from home who have kids?

Anyway, if anyone knows something about this, I'd appreciate some comments!!!

Paula

If you have a Ltd Co then you are an employee of the company.
It will pay and reclaim your SMP.

If you are an employee of the company then you will be entitled to SMP (or MA if you don't qualify for SMP) based on the amount you are paid by the company in the same way as you would be in any other employment.

If you are not an employee then you will not be entitled to anything. There are likely to be problems with other NI-related benefits too (for instance the state pension) so you should review your position with an accountant.

Having read the above posts I would like to 'pick your brains'.

I am employed as PAYE in job 1. Through job 1 I am entitled to SMP, which is fine.

I am also a Director and a sole employee of a Ltd company. Somebody told me to investigate whether I would be entitled for SMP as a Director of a company. I phone HMRC and according to them I am not entitled for SMP, but may be entitled for the Maternity Allowance. I set up my company in Jan 2007 or 2008. At the start this was my sole employment and I was getting a salary, dividends and claiming some business expenses. Now I do less work through the company. I do not pay myself a salary, only claim business expenses and get some dividends. The baby is due 19/03/11- please could you help?

My accountant told me that I was not entitled for SMP and that's that.

HMRC were asking when I signed the last set of accounts and what are the 'directors eranings' in the last accounts report it's 0). All sounds very complicated to me.

To be entitled to SMP from your own company you would have had to pay yourself at least £97 per week (on average) in October and November last year so you have missed that.

You are not entitled to MA because you are entitled to SMP from at least one employer.

Thanks, mranchovy for your help.

So, I guess if there is next time I will know better what to do.

Would you be able to explain what was the 'paying Class 2 even though you are below the limit' by Talkinpeace on Fri 07-Jan-11 22:17:34 about?

All this SMP and MA stuff is mind boggling to me.

Sure.

It is theoretically possible to write to HMRC and say 'I have been running a self employed business for the past nine months but I didn't register as self employed. How much do I owe you in National Insurance?' The answer is £2.40 a week - not very much. You pay that up, and then you can claim full MA.

But this won't work for you (or the OP in the old thread) because you are eligible for SMP in your PAYE job and the first rule of MA is you don't qualify if you are eligible for SMP.

My kids are 10 and 12 but when I did it you HAD to sort your claim out before 20th week pregnancy (as HMRC so politely put it - the viability date)
if by that date all class 2 was up together, then I got MA.
For DD (DC1) I was an employee of an agency so they claimed for me
for DS I paid £178 in and got £945 back - in the days of 6 weeks full pay 8 weeks min pay and then back to work!

hi!
am in similar predicament and find it all very confusing and frustrating!!
seems like more you work, more tax and NI you pay, less you get???!!
I am employed and apparently entitled to SMP which am gutted about as i will get taxed!
also am self employed, paying NI so i thought i will get MA (not taxed) but i cant??! also i have paid my tax upfront for 2010 (as you do as SE)(obviously i wont earn as much as last year as i wont be working, so i will have paid too much tax anyway! £3300 ) so dont understand how they can tax me again??! what about the first £ 7450 tax free? will i get it back? if yes than i suppose its easier to go with SMP but if not i wont be happy ;-(((
aaaaagh it drives me nuts!past few years i worked my ass off, doing 7 days a week etc paying two lots of NI, two lots of tax and i get ....what ? £400 a month???!!!
please help
thanx

Thanks, mranchovy.

TalkinPeace2- HMRC so sensitive, aren't they?

aguilera- sorry, can't help you, am confused myself. It does not seem fair though. I wish I started 'untangling' the system earlier. I also wish I came accross this forum earlier.

aguilera
not sure what you mean about tax you again....
have a look at this
cgi3.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=talkinpeace
(the 2 on my name is cos the other account got mangled but I use this name everywhere)

Tax is paid on your total income for the year across all streams.
NI is paid on each income stream separately.
Benefits that link to tax - like tax credits are based on the total of all streams.
Benefits that link to NI - like pensions, Sickness and maternity are based on the single largest income stream.

Yes, you are taxed on SMP but when it drops back behind your previous wages, you'll get a refund of overpaid tax.
MA is below the tax limit.
£7450 PA does not start till April.
If your tax payments on account are too high, speak to your accountant to sort it.

Thank u. What confused me was that MA does not get taxed at all and Smp does and none of my friends that were getting Smp got any tax money back
I should b entitled to both( i no i can only get one) and as i would hav paid my tax upront by july 2011 getting taxed on Smp ( which i b getting fom april 2011) seems a bit too much. Is there no ways about it? If i had a choice i would rather get Ma, is that wrong?
Ps: my accountant was useless, no help at all
Thanx for ur help