Self employed job - what can I do ?

Nat-nat

Hi I hope this is the right place to post but here goes

I worked for a company until December for 3 years - i am pregnant & looking at maternity allowance - I am 8 weeks short in the 26 week period of claiming it, I can do self employed work as long as I pay class 2 NI contributions.

My question is I need a part time self employed job but have no ideas what I can do ? I need to earn a minimum of £30 a week ! Any ideas ? ( it states on the DWP website that you can get a small earnings exemption cert if you don't earn £30 a week but I'm not sure how easy it is to get one of these ?)

Thanks in advance.

Natalie

RoxyK

When I had to leave my part time job I went self-employed and did Mystery Shopping - there is a thread on here about it.

I think it is quite simple to get a small earnings exemption certificate but I chose to pay my NI contributions to make sure I would qualify for for any future benefits - I'm not sure you will get the necessary contributions otherwise. It might be better to post on the Benefits thread for more advice. Good luck!

carebear13

hi- not sure if i'm misreading your post but- you have to have been employed for 26 weeks out of the last 66 weeks to claim ma, so if you have been at your employer for 3 years then you can claim.

Nat-nat

Thanks for replies. Yes, I worked for them for 3 years however they have something called a test period, it's started on 19 aug 11 & ends 24 nov 12, therefore by the time I left the company I had only worked for the company for 18weeks in the test period, pretty crap really!

carebear13

the company had a test period? have you spoken to the dept that

deals with the ma just to double check?