Entitlement for pregnancy/moving to Germany

carolissosmiley_2

Hi All,

Please can anyone shed some light, I am posting this for a friend.

She is married and will be moving out to Germany in February to join her husband who is currently serving in the army.

My friend is pregnant, 9 weeks at the moment with a due date of 4 Sept 2010, she is taking voluntary redundancy from our employer and leaves next week.

She has been in touch with jobcentre in UK who have been next to useless and can't seem to advise as to what to do and what she may be entitled to.

As she will not qualify for SMP will she be able to get MA? Would this be done from the uk or is there a seperate system set up with the armed forces?

She has been told by jobcentre that she will need to sign on in Germany, would this be correct?

Has anyone been through this or can anyone please guide my friend in the right direction.

Thanks for now

Any suggestions welcome.

Apollonia

There is a booklet with lots of information about Service families moving which covers many topics with links/phone numbers etc for further information. Regarding Maternity allowance:

Maternity Allowance is payable in EU countries provided that the claimant has recently been employed and paying UK National Insurance, as required in the rules. This may also apply to some non-EU countries. However, in countries where it is not payable there is an MOD ex-gratia payment scheme; a certificate to entitlement will be issued by the Benefits Agency which can then be used to make a claim through the pay office/Administrative Office.
This is only a summary: different rules of eligibility apply to each benefit. Any queries regarding social security benefit payments when going overseas should be addressed to The Pension Service in Newcastle tel: 0191 218 7777. There have been cases where the local benefit office has given incorrect advice, so do not take no for an answer. There is a social security leaflet [FONT=Comic Sans MS,Comic Sans MS][FONT=Comic Sans MS,Comic Sans MS]GL26 [/FONT][/FONT]explaining the rules on benefit payments for Service Families which should be available through your local Social Security office. If you have a problem with benefit payments because you are overseas, please bring it to the attention of the SFTF through your unit/Service.

The quote above is on page 15 of the booklet here:

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B675CBA6-2523-430A-B4E2-A2026355FC60/0/RelAide_V7.pdf