Pregnant, Self employed & tax credits - can I claim Maternity Allowance?

supermonkey

I've posted a similar question - if you have the certificate, how much is it to backpay the NI and then get the MA?

Becles

It's the certificate the causes the problem. Even if you do back pay, because you still hold the certificate, you would get £27 a week.

How far pregnant are you? If not yet, or in early pregnancy, get the certificate cancelled now and start paying NI and you should have enough to claim the full amount.

supermonkey

Becles wrote: »

It's the certificate the causes the problem. Even if you do back pay, because you still hold the certificate, you would get £27 a week.

How far pregnant are you? If not yet, or in early pregnancy, get the certificate cancelled now and start paying NI and you should have enough to claim the full amount.

Thanks. the certificate ends in a few days! how long before due date would you need to pay ni for?

alanamyles

supermonkey wrote: »

Thanks. the certificate ends in a few days! how long before due date would you need to pay ni for?

From what I can tell, we need to have been paying Class 2 NI contributions for 26 weeks of the previous 66 (so about six months in total).

The current rate is £2.50 p/w (which was £2.40 p/w until this new tax year). So 26 x £2.40 = £62.40 (ish). I'm not exactly sure if you'd e allowed to pay only part of a year, it may work out that you'd have to pay a full year's worth (about £125?) but even this would be worth it to guarantee those weeks of full-rate maternity!

But I'm no expert and am just beginning to learn about this myself. I'd honestly suggest calling HMRC, the staff have been wonderfully helpful with me and I'm sure they'd be able to offer you the best advice.

Hope all goes well for you with this!

Becles

Just to add that it is definitely worth paying the NI if you don't have an employed job where NI is paid.

It counts towards other things like state pension, and I've just put in a claim for ESA as I had an operation last week and need to stay off work for a few weeks.

supermonkey

alanamyles wrote: »

From what I can tell, we need to have been paying Class 2 NI contributions for 26 weeks of the previous 66 (so about six months in total).

The current rate is £2.50 p/w (which was £2.40 p/w until this new tax year). So 26 x £2.40 = £62.40 (ish). I'm not exactly sure if you'd e allowed to pay only part of a year, it may work out that you'd have to pay a full year's worth (about £125?) but even this would be worth it to guarantee those weeks of full-rate maternity!

But I'm no expert and am just beginning to learn about this myself. I'd honestly suggest calling HMRC, the staff have been wonderfully helpful with me and I'm sure they'd be able to offer you the best advice.

Hope all goes well for you with this!

Thanks, will call today!

Becles wrote: »

Just to add that it is definitely worth paying the NI if you don't have an employed job where NI is paid.

It counts towards other things like state pension, and I've just put in a claim for ESA as I had an operation last week and need to stay off work for a few weeks.

Yes, this makes sense. We got the exemption as we figured it'd be no different than not working at all!

charsum06

Becles wrote: »

It's the certificate the causes the problem. Even if you do back pay, because you still hold the certificate, you would get £27 a week.

How far pregnant are you? If not yet, or in early pregnancy, get the certificate cancelled now and start paying NI and you should have enough to claim the full amount.

Just wondering if anyone could help, I was working for a company for 8 years before being made redundant in Aug 2010, a few months later i found out i was expecting again (due end of July). The local job ctr advised that I would be entitled to MA however I have recently been told that this was an error and that as i will have only worked for 14 weeks(apr 24th 2010 - 31 jul 2010) in the 66 wk test period that I am actually not entitled to claim. Does anyone know if i would be able to claim ma if i registered se for the next 14 weeks and pay my own ni as I have been told i clean for a number of people a few days a week which would take my ni contributions up to 26 weeks - thanks

Arfhurdaly

I wonder if fellow MSE'ers can help.

My wife is pregnant 26th week now. She has been working for my company for 16weeks, although I have only paid her cash for secretarial work.
Is there anyway to make her employment more official so she can claim full maternity allowance. If so, what needs to be done?