Maternity allowance and premature baby

[bluebird1235]

I'm self employed and qualify for maternity allowance, however my babies were born 10 weeks early (thankfully all is OK, just rather unexpected) and I have a couple of issues:

I have a job which is 99% done, but waiting on approval from the client prior to invoicing and there's a couple of minor bits to tweak.

I am due to go to another client for a couple of days and am thinking about going ahead with it while my babies are still in hospital rather than cancelling (meaning that they'll fill my space with someone else).

My understanding is that MA has to start on the day the baby was born.

Can I invoice now for work that was done prior to the birth?!

If I do work (within the keeping in touch limits) can I invoice for that work?!

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Hi bluebird, I came on to post something completely unrelated about MA and saw your post.

I don't know for sure but I don't think there's a problem with invoicing while claiming MA. I'm a barrister and have never considered there would be anything wrong with my clerk invoicing stuff after I'd stopped work and was receiving MA.

Like you my understanding is that MA has to start on the day of your baby's birth if it hasn't already started by then, and that after that you are limited to keeping in touch days. Can't see why you wouldn't be able to invoice for all that, and anything outstanding at the time you finish work to have your baby/babies.

Congratulations!

Thanks for your reply. What you say certainly makes sense and I feel as though so long as I'm not working or exceeding the keeping in touch days then I can't be doing too much wrong!