Self Employed and going on maternity leave.

[Bky]

I have been self employed for the last year. I am going on Maternity Leave mid January 2008 and plan to take the full 9 month's off.

I rang the self employed helpline and was first told I need to tell my local job centre benefits office that I would no longer be self employed, but they had no idea and told me to call them back. Spoke to someone else second time round who said I didn't need to do anything and when I handed in my maternity allowance form they would 'know' I was on maternity leave and only had to ring and change my status should I not continue being self employed after maternity is up.

Soooo does anyone know what I actually need to do....do I need to tell anyone or not, I don't want to get in trouble for not informing them, also do i still need to pay my national insurance contributions whilst on maternity leave?

Bky have you seen this from directgov, might help?

I am self employed - and also the ompany "director". I didnt have enough money within the company to pay myself maternity pay, so was able to claim it from the government, smp of £108 a week or whatever it is or 80% of my average weekly wage whichever was least. As I was only earning minimum wage , I thinki I got about £90 a week for the 38 weeks, and as a company director I could claim the full amount from the government and then blow it all on some fantastic baby clothes pay it to myself on a weekly basis. There is a self employed maternity type helpline - I cant remember but think it was within the tax office.

I thougt it would be a complete nightmare but to be honest it was all pretty straight forward.

Sorry I cant be of anymore help... thats what having a child does to your brain!!