Maternity Allowance - Self Employed

Becles

Took my friend to collect some baby equipment from town this morning as they don't have a car, so we called into the job centre while we were there.

We were advised that if she sends the small earnings exemption certificate back and waits for a letter to say it has been revoked, before putting in her maternity claim, she'll get the full £108.15 a week as she's paid her NI stamps. Friend is delighted to learn this, as it's a little more than what she budgeted for, so she's much happier and less worried now.

Seems a silly system where having the certificate penalises you when you need to claim benefits though

Savvy_Sue

Becles wrote:

Took my friend to collect some baby equipment from town this morning as they don't have a car, so we called into the job centre while we were there.

We were advised that if she sends the small earnings exemption certificate back and waits for a letter to say it has been revoked, before putting in her maternity claim, she'll get the full £108.15 a week as she's paid her NI stamps. Friend is delighted to learn this, as it's a little more than what she budgeted for, so she's much happier and less worried now.

Seems a silly system where having the certificate penalises you when you need to claim benefits though

I am glad to hear this, because I was going to ask if she could give up her certificate retrospectively, as it were!

It's a long time since I paid voluntary contributions when I had a certificate precisely to get the maternity allowance, but it was worth doing!

choccyface

how long do you have to pay voluntary contributions for? ive been self employed for 18mths now and have exemption cert, but am thinking of paying class 2 voluntarily as ive found out my state pension is affected. At some point in the next few years, i may have another child (not yet tho!!) will they take into account previous contributions which i made for 16yrs on full time pay?

Becles

Have you got any other children? If you are getting Child Benefit in your name, you'll automatically have Home Protection Responsbility (or something like that) which gives you credits towards your pension. It's to cover mothers who either stop work, or only work a few hours to protect their pension.

From what I understand, if you claim Maternity Allowance with a Small Earnings Certificate, you will only get £30 a week.

However if you cancel the certificate and pay Class 2 contributions you'll qualify for full Maternity Allowance which is currently £108.15 a week. You need to have paid contributions for 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before the week your baby is due (why do they use such lingo!). Your previous NI contributions won't count towards MA in the future.

From April next year, you get 9 months MA instead of 6 months, which is good news for me as my baby is due in May

Savvy_Sue

Becles wrote:

Home Protection Responsbility

Home Responsibilities Protection ... but you're right, if chocyface is claiming Child Benefit in her name, she gets it, and it's not really good for anything except building up credit for your pension.