Maternity pay

jse77

Hello, my partner left her work in May 2011 for her maternity leave. Our daughter was born 27th June 20011, she received her 9 maternity pay, but her job was finished meaning she has not worked since. She has now signed on for job seekers allowance which has been accepted... but has found out she is pregnant again ALREADY!!.
With her not working will she be eligible for any government maternity pay a few months down the line or does she have to find work before??

karenx

No she wont get maternity pay unless worked 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before baby is due. So she will need to get a job in order to get that.

clairec79

When did she officially finish working for her old employer? As standard maternity leave is counted as working - so if she gets a few weeks work during her pregnancy she may qualify for MA

jse77

Hi, her working contract officially ended last August. She was in touch with her work she used to be at 2 years ago and they have now said she could work from home but it is only until September if starting next week .She worked out her total earnings would be £4356 would she have to pay tax and would this be good enough to receive the maternity allowance? Thanks

karenx

Depends when she is due. She needs to be working 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before her due date. Now till September is only 18 weeks so she won't get maternity pay on that alone

jse77

right I see, the baby is due on 7th December.

jse77

We are a bit worried now, will she qualify for the incapacity and working benefit, I thought I saw on directgov she just may be.

lilymay1

jse77 wrote: »

We are a bit worried now, will she qualify for the incapacity and working benefit, I thought I saw on directgov she just may be.

I'm not sure what benefit you are referring to?

As she is not employed at the moment, she will not be able to claim Maternity Pay (SMP) from anyone.

Count back 66 calendar weeks from the week starting before 7th December. Your wife/partner needs to have worked for a minimum of 26 weeks within those 66 weeks (and have earned a minimum of £30 a week for 13 of those weeks) to be able to claim Maternity Allowance (MA). You will need to fill in the relevant forms when she wants to claim it, as well as provide the relevant payslips. The figure she receives is based on an average of those 13 weeks earnings.

Does that make sense?

MrsManda

jse77 wrote: »

We are a bit worried now, will she qualify for the incapacity and working benefit, I thought I saw on directgov she just may be.

Do you mean Employment Support Allowance (replaced Incapacity Benefit for new claimants in 2008)?

If she's not entitled to SMP or MA she may be able to claim ESA from the the 6th week before her estimated due date so from 34 weeks, until 2 weeks after her actual date of delivery.

Details can be found in the DWP decision makers guide:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch42.pdf

If she has a pregnancy related illness or a medical condition not related to her pregnancy which means she's unable to work she may be able to claim ESA for longer.

Whether she'll be entitled to payment rather than just National Insurance Credits will depend on whether she meets either the contributions criteria or the income based criteria.

What do you mean by working benefit?