Claim for Maternity Allowance?

[tootiredforxyz]

Wondering if anyone can help. Friends tell me I can claim Maternity Allowance, but I'm not sure that I'm eligible?

I left my PT job in July, and have since started my own business. I'm paying out plenty at the moment as you'd expect, though haven't yet earnt a penny... I'm 23 weeks pregnant, due in March.

Do I have to start paying NI stamps to get MA or am I not eligible anyway?

Very confused.

get your midwife to give you the forms
pay over your class 2 money (£2.30 a week ish) and you get Mat Allowance back
MrAnchovy is more up to date with the numbers than I am
search the forum for the recent threads on this

I'm 23 weeks pregnant too - hope you are feeling well and enjoying it. It is a daunting thing to be self-employed and pregnant - I have started my own thread on it here!

I believe that it will all depend on what work you were doing within a given period of time. You can download the claim form with this link:

www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/ma1.pdf

and there is info about it at www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018869

It is rather involved and takes time to read through, but I hope that this helps.

Good luck with your new business!

This is a really clear explanation of how the Maternity Allowance works for self-employed women:

businessplusbaby.com/2010/09/08/self-employed-protect-your-right-to-maternity-allowance/?doing_wp_cron

You should have been paying Class 2 National Insurance since you started work, naughty ;)

In order to get Maternity Allowance you need to have paid NI for 26 weeks up to the week before your baby was due.

So you need to contact the Newly Self-Employed Help Line on 0845 915 4515, tell them that you have been working as self employed since the beginning of September (I assume that was the date) and you need to backdate your contributions from then (you are very sorry, you have seen some information saying that you have three months to register, but a nice fish man told you that was no longer the case). You do not want to apply for the Small Earnings Exemption.

Anchovy
not if her SE net earnings were below the limit - as is the case with many many part time self employed people

the OP says she's not earned any income yet ....

and I was quite open about paying up unneeded class 2 to get Mat All !
pay £178, get £960 back - excellent investment!

anchovy is right though, you still have to register self-employed, and you will just pay the token NI contribution until your tax return, when the IR will calculate whether your net earnings are below the limit. In the meantime, paying the basic contribution ensures that you qualify for all relevant benefits.

Wow thank you for all the info. This is really helpful.

HMRC are all but closed today it seems.. can't get through... if I start paying NI contributions now by DD will I still be able to pay the backlog at a later date?

And if I register online... will that not take into account the as yet unpaid NI stamps??

thanks if anyone's still there...!

You could register on line, it does ask you for a start date so they ought to take contributions from then but it would be better to do it by phone tomorrow when they are not on strike: the Direct Debit system is quite new and there's no guarantee it will do what you want whereas the people on the Newly Self Employed Help Line are actually quite helpful (at least they used to be, they may have been cut back and merged into the general ly useless call centre).

I was extremely disappointed to discover, as a self-employed adoptive mother, I am not entitled to an allowance from the government. Had I conceived naturally, I would be able to claim the statutory maternity allowance. This seems to me quite unfair. I have worked full-time since graduating over twenty years ago and became self employed following redundancy. My husband and I need this extra support at this time.

Please support me (and women like me) by signing my e-petition.
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/17701

Many thanks

barry
that is an unwelcome bit of discrimination - especially as Maternity is worth a decent amount now
but I would suggest diverting energies into checking the best presentation of your accounts to get maximum child tax credit :-)