Statutory Maternity Pay

PierremontQuaker03

Hi - we are expecting our first child in July 2013.
Me (the husband) earns 40k per annum, and my wife works part time and she is wondering if she will be entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay, and wants to know roughly how much it is.
Although I am an accountant I am struggling to get round what we are/are not entitled to. I know with my salary probably not a lot, but my wife is independent and surely would be entitled to something.
So, my wife has worked with her current employer for 3 years and last July (2012) went to part time, and to be honest is struggling to make the lower earning limit (LEL) of £107 per week at the moment.
So I am thinking, should my wife ask for more hours to make sure she hits the LEL for this tax year, or is the assessment done on the next tax year, or can my wife choose to pay NI so that she gets SMP, or if indeed she is deemed to earn less that £107 per week what other options to we have?
I have been working for the last 14 years continuous, and must have paid at least 50k in tax in that time, so surely now is the time I am entitled to get something back?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

clairec79

If she does not earn enough to claim SMP but has been working for that long she would be entitled to Maternity Allowance

1981trouble

Your wife's entitlement is nothing at all to do with your work/employment just hers.

She has worked long enough to be entitled to smp. This is calculated based in her income between two dates in pregnancy 15-23 weeks before due date I think (google and find those exact dates). So yes she should increase her hours to above the min limit for those weeks to get smp (Hmrc and google will confirm how much she needs to earn and how much to exactly she will get paid as it changes each tax year with inflation)

If she doesn't earn enough in those weeks she will get maternity allowance. Again googling from hmrc or direct.gov.uk will give you pretty straightforward answers.

1981trouble

Just checked the income assessment is the 8 weeks preceding the 15weeks before due date.

So in pregnancy terms weeks 17-25 are her income weeks when she wants to be earning more than 107 each week to be entitled to smp.