Maternity Allowance. Self Employed.

dddd1

Hi all,

I have a question about Maternity Allowance.

My OH is expecting a baby in May. She is self employed doing cleaning and some other bits for about £140 per week. She has been paying her NIC so I think she will be able to get Maternity Allowance.

Now, she also has a website where she sells pet bits and pieces which she set up with the intention of having it replace the cleaning, but not having had time to get it up and running properly it just ticks along making maybe £40 per month profit, some months it may be nothing.

She will obviously not be doing the cleaning so would like to claim the Maternity Allowance, BUT what about the website, although it doesn't make any money realy I guess it would stop her from claiming the MA?
She wouldn't want to delete the website for 6 months and then have to start the whole thing again.

One thing I thought of was I could take over the running of the site (it isn't any work realy just posting orders) and have any payments come to me (if there are any). I'm employed so I would register as Self Employed aswell as being employed.


Any comments would be great.
Thanks.

karenx

While on MA you cannot do any work at all

smiley:_3-2

I have just finished my maternity allowance and am self employed. When I questioned what you can and cant do on maternity allowance I was told you are able to work up to 10 days during your maternity allowance pay they understand that if you are self employed a buisness still needs to be their when you return I found them quite helpful so give them a call hope this helps

dddd1

Hi Karenx

Thanks for the reply.
I realise you can't do work while on MA which was why I made the sugestion about me taking over the website, as it makes near enough nothing but would disqualify her from claiming.

The only other option would be for her to delete the site while claiming, which wouldn't be ideal as she's put quite a bit of work into it.

Thanks.

karenx

If you took it on then you will have to also do a tax return for that business

saucygurl123

when you apply they do not ask for proof of earnings when self employed they just make sure you have met the criteria of being self employed for at least 26 weeks and have made at 13 national insurance payments in your test period x

dddd1

Hi Karenx

So if I was to take on her self employed business while she was on maternity I would just need to register as self employed so that I am sent a tax return, is that correct?

Is there any downside to doing this as I would then be both employed in my current job and also self employed looking after her business. (For information, my combined income would not take me into the next tax band).

Thanks again.