does my partner qualify for maternity allowance

deanh1

my partner was working full time up until 28/02 then her contract finished meaning she was out of work. She then fell pregnant with the baby due 21/12.

does she qualify for maternity allowance as she was working for 13 weeks out of the 66 week test period.

she is not entitled to any other benefits due to me working, and so she has no money herself coming in

Duncombe

She needs to have worked for 26 of the 66 weeks during her test period, and have been earning more than £30 a week. Did she do this?

flea72

you have to be employed for 26wks out of the 66wks. the 13wks only refers to which weeks you want to show pay slips for, so they can work out monetary entitlement

F

deanh1

yes she did as she worked full time from march 09

the only reason im querying it is she fell pregnant after finishing there and the form asks if she stopped work to have her baby

Duncombe

I know which part of the form you are refering to and no, she did not stop work to have her baby. She stopped work before she even fell pregnant.

If she worked for 26 weeks during her qualifying period and earned more than £30 a week...she will qualify. Probably. Fill the form in, send it off along with the 13 weeks payslips inwhich she earned the most...and they will tell you if you qualify!

flea72

by my reckoning she is only about 4wks off the 26wks needed, so she has more than enough time to find some temp employment before baby is due, so she can get her numbers up

F

Duncombe

If she can find some employment, then yes that woud be the route to go down.

Good luck to her.

deanh1

thanks for the replies, it appears she is 2 weeks short, and the chance of her finding temp employment is very slim

Duncombe

deanh1 wrote: »

thanks for the replies, it appears she is 2 weeks short, and the chance of her finding temp employment is very slim

Make sure you double and triple check that she has worked enough weeks.

I fully understand the difficulties she will face getting any sort of employment though - people dont want to employ pregnant woman. I would suggest she get job hunting now rather than leaving it any longer.

Is there any sort of cleaning job she could take on for a while? Or bar work? Or waitressing? Do and have friends or family who work how may be able to get her a temp job?

deanh1

how would that work with the form tho if she did, as it asks when employment stopped

Duncombe

deanh1 wrote: »

how would that work with the form tho if she did, as it asks when employment stopped

There is more than one space to fill in work details. The 26 weeks of paid employment do not have to have been in a row - nor do the 13 weeks you will provide payslips from.

It asks you to put the details of ALL employment you have had during your test period including the dates worked. So, if her test period is from October 2009 - Dec 2010. She could put she worked for 'X' company from March 2009 - Feb 2010....then worked for 'Y' company from September 2010 - November 2010. Does that makes sense?

She is not about to give birth anytime soon so she does have the opportunity to find work.

The section including questions like "Have you stopped work to have your baby" are not relevent to your partner since a) she does not currently have a job and b) she couldn't yet claim MA or SMP even if she was entitled to it.

Read the form again - and the huge info pack that is provided with it. Its quite straightforward to fill in