Self Employed Maternity Allowances

andyhack

Hi all,
My wife and I are expecting our first child on 17/05/11. She is currently registered as self employed but has a small earnings exception for national insurance contributions. We're a little confused as to what maternity allowance she is entitled to...

If we were to backdate our NICs to Feb 2010, could she still claim the full statutary maternity allowance of around £124p/w, or does the system not work that way? Or are we stuck with the lower allowance of £27p/w?

Thanks in advance

Andy

ManicMum

Backdate it as soon as possible. I found this out completely by accident. By paying £2.40 a week for however many weeks it is, you can claim £124 a week for 6 months or is it longer now? I phoned them 3 times to check this as seemed too good to be true but it is! You can rescind your SEE and just pay the class 2 instead and backdate. At least you could 2 yrs ago.

andyhack

Thanks for that. Will it still count towards your test period contributions even if they been backdated? We don't want to shell out £125 for them to turn around and say "nice try".

Andy

ManicMum

Yes, I think it must count towards test period. from memory I shelled out about that amount to cover period from Nov 07 to beginning of 09. I was just of the opinion that when I was off work on my mat leave as self employed person I would be without an income. I had been told to apply for SEE so I had. Then I read somewhere by total fluke on the subject and called up the DWP 3 times as couldn't believe I could get that sort of return for £2.40 a week. But they said I could so sent my SEE back to National Insurance office in newcastle and sent a cheque off for the backdated payments. If you call up the right people - should be able to find that online - there are different offices for whereever you are in UK - they will advise/confirm. Since then I have paid class 2 and haven't bothered with the SEE. At the time I felt like I won the lotto!! Good luck with it all and with your impending event. Your first?

andyhack

Yeah it's our first. We're both so excited! Thanks for all you're help, we've got things in progress now and hopefully we'll hear back soon.

Andy

Becles

It's the certificate that causes the problems. For weeks when you hold the certificate, you're only entitled to the £27 MA, even if you also pay the Class 2 NI.

I think you need 13 weeks of paying NI and not holding the certificate to get the full MA.

I had a certificate and was paying NI but read up on the rules before I got pregnant. I ditched the certificate and therefore I got the full MA.

If you ring the self employed helpline at HMRC, they should be able to help. They were lovely when I phoned them.

Hope it works out for you xx

ManicMum

yes, get that certificate sent back ASAP.

Good luck. Seems like yesterday but got 3 of them now. :j