Statutory maternity pay for freelancers

[BabyRuthie]

Hi - can anyone help from their own experiences of claiming SMP whilst being a freelancer... my friend said it's a royal faff and you need all sorts of 'proof' you have worked consistently for the previous 12 months. I have done but I don't get payslips and have only just been informed that I should have been asking for remittance notices from clients to 'prove' they have paid me... all i have is bank statements... any tips at making this process easier/less stressful?!

I can't report on the full process as I began applying but then was offered maternity pay by a contracting client, so I didn't get smp in the end. However I got quite a long way with the application. It was a faff, but the department that dealt with it were very helpful - you can phone them up and ask questions and I think in some places you can go into a benefits centre where they'll help you (can't remember all the details, but google it and you'll find the official government site). As I remember, mine was a super-faff because of my ambiguous status (partly self-employed, partly sort-of employed) but I remember thinking that if I'd been fully self-employed it would have been a lot easier.

If you haven't got remittance advice slips, have you got invoices? If you can show your invoices and then the bank statements showing that those the cheques were paid in, that should help.

I'm a freelancer and I found it very easy. I get paid after invoices, so lump sums irregularly, and I didn't have to show any proof of earnings. I assumed it was becuase I was registered as self employed (the 10 digit number) and I paid stamps (NICO). I just filled in the form and dropped it off to the local job centre.

I think it might be different if you are agency for example, where you get paid and have tax dedcuted at source, maybe?